hey all - I was just wondering if anyone has seen any garden eels for sale online - I found one website (bluegrassaquatics) but they are crazy expensive. Fish stores havent been able to get them in for over a year and I am tired of waiting....
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yeah stores almost never get them in due to their special needs and almost no demand. I think im going to have to go with bluegrassWow. The only ones I've seen in captivity were in a 6 inch DSB at a local LFS.
They were sold a month later. That was the last I heard of them.
One of the most amazing sites I've seen in the world is diving at 140 ft off of the Big Island of Hawaii and coming across acres of garden eels in the sand.
As we moved along about 20 feet above the sand the garden eels would slide back into their homes and then re-emerge as we passed.
they say they "arent on the list" or something. I had same results here, tried 4 splendids, 1 didnt even burrow and died overnight, 3 never ate. there is one store that sometimes gets them but when they do its only 1-2, and it is 45 min away for me. I am only 16 no license yet, and parents arent willing to drive me that far to get a fish lol.Good luck finding some, I believe they are seasonal and now is the season. I kept garden eels for several years both the spotted ones and splendid. The spotted ones always did better for me. I had to give them away before a long distance move. Why don't you ask one of your local reef shops to order them for you?
Awesome!There's a large area of them in a sand flat near the old Kona airport, near where they do the manta ray dive! Awesome sight! So hard to get pictures of them though, they just won't let you get close enough to take their picture.
its either have them shipped to me or the LFS, either way they have to go through that... as long as there is a DOA guarantee, I think I should be good. In my opinion, my current 2 garden eels are almost always within 2 inches of eachother, and I have seen plenty pictures of spotted garden eels together that appear to be thriving.I would be reluctant to have them shipped. Garden eels do not do well being shipped. They try to bury the whole time they are in the bag and damage their tails. Being patient and getting healthy specimens from an LFS goes a long way toward success.
Also, they like to keep an 8"-12" distance from conspecifics, so really not sure how many more you would be able to keep longterm in a 28g tank.
Yeah I have seen mine do both of these things, but they generally like to be close to eachother so they are a male and female ?Interesting species with a fascinating life cycle. Males and females are often close together since their sex organs are on the upper part of their body above the "normal" sand line, and to mate they lean over and wrap around one another. Males are also territorial and will lean over some distance to bite other males in their area especially during mating season.
I actually bought my first one and added it into the tank while it was still a reef (impulse buy) after doing a LOT more research, that weekend I converted the tank to a garden eel type setting. When I get home ill post pictures of the tank over time. I still have that first eel, infact its the one in the picture above.In my experience they definitely do fight and not like to be that close to each other. I have no idea how that works with so many either overcrowding or frequent restocking. I will have to go back and check my records but I had about 6-8 live several years in a 36x24 footprint that was 80% or more sand (6-10" deep) with just one rock island with a very small base. I had as many as 12+ but some of them died due to not eating, or the orange splendid garden eels not being as hearty as originally mentioned. I even had one jump but if this doesn't happen in the first day or 2 it's very unlikely to happen.
I kept them for about 4 years and only took down the tank because I did not want to move 100s and 100s of lbs of sand a long distance. My move was a mess and I lost enough livestock as it was. Seeing this thread is really making me want to have these guys again, they are so entertaining and you certainly can keep them with fish and corals as long as the tank is built around the garden eels and you slide other things in that can survive in their habitat vs trying to add garden eels to a tank that has a slightly deep sandbed.
http://www.advancedaquarist.com/2011/7/fish2its either have them shipped to me or the LFS, either way they have to go through that... as long as there is a DOA guarantee, I think I should be good. In my opinion, my current 2 garden eels are almost always within 2 inches of eachother, and I have seen plenty pictures of spotted garden eels together that appear to be thriving.