Icky Nicky
Active Member
Hello everyone, I'm doing this little write up to share my experience with the blue/black ribbon eels and keeping them in groups (and to get that cool R2R Research tag). Hopefully this will help educate people about how smart these awesome guys actually are. (Heads up that this will probably be very disorganized, but just try to stick with me)
Personally, I believe that these guys are more intelligent and capable of more than we give them credit for, and I think some of what I've found/experienced backs that up.
We already know that fish can recognize their owners, and eels being predators even more so since they have to be able to recognize everything that's going on around them. I tested this in a few different ways, the first of which would be just coming up and sitting by the tank, putting my finger up to the glass, etc. At first they would become started and retreat into their den. As time went on they went from that to just kind of not minding that I was there, then one day I tried again and the one I've had the longest now, Azulon came up to the glass to meet my finger, followed me a little bit, then went back to what he was doing. Fast forward a week and I've got my hand in the tank adjusting some rocks, and he's sticking his head out further than usual and seems quite intrigued in my arm, so I slowly moved my hand towards him, once it was close to the den entrance he comes up and basically rubs his head against my finger how a cat would, I sat there stunned, gave him a little bit of a pet/scratch with my knuckle/finger, and then he went back to what he was doing, and I did the same. I was shocked, I had just built a relationship with this eel and built up enough trust for him to not even just let me touch him, he wanted me to. The other 2 are not so much a fan of this, and will tolerate it for about 5 seconds before going back into the den, though I've had them for a much shorter period of time than Azulon.
That made me want to try something, so I enlisted the help of a friend, and for 10 dollars I got him to put his hand in the tank and try what I tried, I made sure I was out of sight of the eels when this happened, as soon as he approached the tank both of the eels lowered themselves past the threshold of the den entrance so that they could still observe what was happening and also be protected. He put his hand near the entrance, neither eel came out to greet him like they would me. I told him to move his hand closer, he did. Then out comes Azulon, quickly and aggressively. Azulon bit my friend then again retreated to just below the threshold of the entrance. Not only can these eels recognize their owners, they can tell when someone is a stranger. After about 10 minutes and with my friend out of sight I decided to come up to the tank and put my arm in. Azulon cautiously came out, seemed to look at and sniff my hand, gave me a brief head rub and then went back to his low/entrenched position in the den entrance, while this was happening Azula was seemingly scanning the tank and the surroundings.
Then that reminded me, whenever I would go to the kitchen at night I had noticed that there was always at least one seemingly on the lookout from one of the den entrances, now when I started keeping track of this it was a week prior to getting my third eel. I started to take note of which eel was out at which time, my lights are on 12 hours and off 12 hours, off from 10P to 10A. From ~10P to ~4A Azulon is always the one on watch, and from ~4A to ~10A it's always Azula. Upon the addition of the new eel they seemed to trade off every 4 hours or so, it goes Azulon, Azula, Then Sozin(the newest one) without fail every night one of the 3 is out at the corresponding time, give or take 30 minutes or so. As you can tell this shows a high level of intelligence and coordination. This didn't really surprise me but it did amaze me, we know that other animals such as bees or wolves have lookouts on shifts to ensure the safety of the den/hive. How exactly these eels communicate/coordinate with each other I'm not sure, if I'm able to observe something that I believe is indicative of this behavior I will share it here.
There is more I would like to touch on, however I do not believe that I have enough information/observed enough to confidently make statements/conclusions. I will continue to observe and experiment, I will post updates here when the occur!
I would like to thank @lion king for all his help in terms of nutritional advice for these guys. Hope you enjoy my little write up!
@Daniel@R2R can I get my cool little tag please?
Personally, I believe that these guys are more intelligent and capable of more than we give them credit for, and I think some of what I've found/experienced backs that up.
We already know that fish can recognize their owners, and eels being predators even more so since they have to be able to recognize everything that's going on around them. I tested this in a few different ways, the first of which would be just coming up and sitting by the tank, putting my finger up to the glass, etc. At first they would become started and retreat into their den. As time went on they went from that to just kind of not minding that I was there, then one day I tried again and the one I've had the longest now, Azulon came up to the glass to meet my finger, followed me a little bit, then went back to what he was doing. Fast forward a week and I've got my hand in the tank adjusting some rocks, and he's sticking his head out further than usual and seems quite intrigued in my arm, so I slowly moved my hand towards him, once it was close to the den entrance he comes up and basically rubs his head against my finger how a cat would, I sat there stunned, gave him a little bit of a pet/scratch with my knuckle/finger, and then he went back to what he was doing, and I did the same. I was shocked, I had just built a relationship with this eel and built up enough trust for him to not even just let me touch him, he wanted me to. The other 2 are not so much a fan of this, and will tolerate it for about 5 seconds before going back into the den, though I've had them for a much shorter period of time than Azulon.
That made me want to try something, so I enlisted the help of a friend, and for 10 dollars I got him to put his hand in the tank and try what I tried, I made sure I was out of sight of the eels when this happened, as soon as he approached the tank both of the eels lowered themselves past the threshold of the den entrance so that they could still observe what was happening and also be protected. He put his hand near the entrance, neither eel came out to greet him like they would me. I told him to move his hand closer, he did. Then out comes Azulon, quickly and aggressively. Azulon bit my friend then again retreated to just below the threshold of the entrance. Not only can these eels recognize their owners, they can tell when someone is a stranger. After about 10 minutes and with my friend out of sight I decided to come up to the tank and put my arm in. Azulon cautiously came out, seemed to look at and sniff my hand, gave me a brief head rub and then went back to his low/entrenched position in the den entrance, while this was happening Azula was seemingly scanning the tank and the surroundings.
Then that reminded me, whenever I would go to the kitchen at night I had noticed that there was always at least one seemingly on the lookout from one of the den entrances, now when I started keeping track of this it was a week prior to getting my third eel. I started to take note of which eel was out at which time, my lights are on 12 hours and off 12 hours, off from 10P to 10A. From ~10P to ~4A Azulon is always the one on watch, and from ~4A to ~10A it's always Azula. Upon the addition of the new eel they seemed to trade off every 4 hours or so, it goes Azulon, Azula, Then Sozin(the newest one) without fail every night one of the 3 is out at the corresponding time, give or take 30 minutes or so. As you can tell this shows a high level of intelligence and coordination. This didn't really surprise me but it did amaze me, we know that other animals such as bees or wolves have lookouts on shifts to ensure the safety of the den/hive. How exactly these eels communicate/coordinate with each other I'm not sure, if I'm able to observe something that I believe is indicative of this behavior I will share it here.
There is more I would like to touch on, however I do not believe that I have enough information/observed enough to confidently make statements/conclusions. I will continue to observe and experiment, I will post updates here when the occur!
I would like to thank @lion king for all his help in terms of nutritional advice for these guys. Hope you enjoy my little write up!
@Daniel@R2R can I get my cool little tag please?
