New to saltwater at home and ribbon eel

[Salinestains]

Hey everyone! My names Ann and I worked at a petco for a little while. I've always kept freshwater from bettas to discus to inverts, and when I worked at petco I had to learn saltwater. Now that I feel like I'm ready to adequately take care of a tank in my home setting I've set my sights pretty high. I've built a 6 ft long, 4 ft high, 3 ft wide tank (roughly 530 gallons) and I ideally want to get a ribbon eel. I know they're difficult eaters and not very beginner level but I feel at a weird in-between stage of never having kept a tank at home and keeping 2 walls at work (don't work there anymore boss was into shady stuff). I've dealt with picky eaters and im smitten with ribbon eels. So basically the essence of why I joined was to figure out if that would be a big enough tank for a ribbon eel to be comfortable and what if anything people recommend be kept with it?

 

[Reefer58]

Welcome! I absolutely love ribbon eels and that would be a nice home for one . I have a ghost ribbon eel who has lived with me for 5 years now in my mixed reef. When I first got him he lived in a standard 120 gallon tank for a bit till I upgraded to a new tank which is close to 8 feet in length. Getting my ribbon to eat frozen food was not that hard for me. I would offer him different frozen foods on a stick every day till he finally took a piece… then he came back for more ever since . I found that if you do a slight wiggle to make the the shrimp more “alive” on the stick helps get their attention. Frozen jumbo whole krill is what finally made the ribbon eat. I’ve heard the blue ribbons are the most stubborn to get use to frozen food but as long as you keep it up and are determined you should be fine. My ribbon eats anything ( jumbo krill, chopped squid, mysis, chopped frozen silversides, etc.) Also, you can keep community fish with them but just make sure the fish are not smaller then the ribbons mouth (Anything that fits and is slow can become dinner). In my mixed reef I have tangs, athias, rabbit fish, few damsels that have been model citizens, a big goby, a niger trigger who's also been a model citizen, cleaner shrimps, etc. My ribbon has been very peaceful and he gets kept with a full belly.

 

[Reefnman2]

Welcome to R2R Ann and good luck!

 

[KJ]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Jimbhoy13]

Welcome to R2R and your own salty world Ann. Wow that’s a big tank Lots of knowledgeable and helpful people here who will support and advise you when needed.

 

[Alaeriel]

Welcome! I can't wait to see your tank setup. It sounds like the perfect home! Tons of great advice and research resources here.

Start a build thread so we can follow along, if you haven't already!

So you want a MY TANK THREAD badge???

Well, here's the way to get one! STEP 1: Start a tank thread in one of our member tank forums (CLICK HERE). *Btw, it doesn't have to be a new tank. It doesn't matter if your tank has been up for 40+ years, we would still love for you to start a tank thread where we can follow all the updates...

www.reef2reef.com

 

[Peace River]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[Zach B]

Welcome Ann

 

[MaxTremors]

I’m of the opinion that ribbon eels shouldn’t be in captivity. The survivability rate is just too low. Yes, there are people who keep them successfully, but they are truly exceptions to the rule. I feel like because they are aquatic animals, the ethics of keeping wild caught animals with such low survival rates in captivity is overlooked, but to put it into perspective, would you pay to have a fox or a koala taken from the wild if it had a less than 5% chance it would survive in your care (even if you tried your best to keep it alive)? I don’t mean to discourage you from the hobby, but ribbon eels are just one of those species that continues to get imported that just shouldn’t be. I know there are people who will disagree, and I’m sure there are some people here who have successfully kept them, but they are exceptions to the rule. It’s your tank, and you can do what you want with it, but the ethics of attempting to keep animals like these is worth mentioning.

 

[Jeffcb]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!!!

 

[PeterC99]

Welcome to R2R!

Looking forward to seeing your pics of 530g and Ribbon Eel!

 

[Poof No Eyebrows]

Welcome

 

[Billldg]

Welcome to R2R!!!

 

[G Santana]

Welcome to R2R, very ambitious. Good luck!

 

[Fred2482]

Welcome!

 

[Ryan3313]

 

[MERKEY]

Hello and welcome to R2R!

 

[Fish Think Pink]

Hey everyone! My names Ann and I worked at a petco for a little while. I've always kept freshwater from bettas to discus to inverts, and when I worked at petco I had to learn saltwater. Now that I feel like I'm ready to adequately take care of a tank in my home setting I've set my sights pretty high. I've built a 6 ft long, 4 ft high, 3 ft wide tank (roughly 530 gallons) and I ideally want to get a ribbon eel. I know they're difficult eaters and not very beginner level but I feel at a weird in-between stage of never having kept a tank at home and keeping 2 walls at work (don't work there anymore boss was into shady stuff). I've dealt with picky eaters and im smitten with ribbon eels. So basically the essence of why I joined was to figure out if that would be a big enough tank for a ribbon eel to be comfortable and what if anything people recommend be kept with it?

Hi Ann and Welcome!

I'm Lisa and deferring to others as I have never kept an eel. Glad you joined

 

[dwair]

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

 

[SPR1968]

Hi and welcome to Reef2Reef!