where to find garden eels

[Mikedawg]

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 ?

Think so, male has more "prominent" jaw than female but at their size who can tell, ha ha

 

[Kremis]

I have looked through that article before a year ago after purchasing my first one. I understand their care requirements, having kept 2 successfully for over a year. I think that my tank will max out at 5-6 eels after caring for them myself and reading others experiences online, watching videos and seeing pictures. If that turns out to be not true, I will either set up another tank for eels or give the extras to another hobbiest.

 

[Kremis]

Think so, male has more "prominent" jaw than female but at their size who can tell, ha ha

Ill post close ups of each when I get home

 

[gig 'em]

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....

I usually see them at exotic reef imports (ERI) in LA. Ask your LFS to check the ERI wholesale lists and order through them if you really want them.

 

[Kremis]

2 eels compared with eachother

front

side
right now there is a lot of clutter in the sand bed (random toadstool, baby JB's, whatever that is at the front) looking at this again id say 3 more eels max (5 eels total)

 

[Kremis]

for anyone wanting a timeline of the tank over the past year, thought it would be cool to post
before eels

first eel

re designing

re designing v2

rebuilding after major crash (few months later)

week later

and that brings us to the pictures above after re decorating

 

[eatbreakfast]

If you have two doing well in a 28g tank. I strongly recommend not adding more. Consexuals fight in cramped quarters. And 28g does not afford enough space for others beside the pr you have.

 

[Kremis]

If you have two doing well in a 28g tank. I strongly recommend not adding more. Consexuals fight in cramped quarters. And 28g does not afford enough space for others beside the pr you have.

I am gonna give it a shot, and if I see blatant fighting and other eels clearly not thriving as a result of this I will remove some and pass them along to another local hobbiest.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

I have a small community of five. They are amazing fish but are easily frightened so their tank mates need to be chosen carefully.
I was reading before and got me thinking, garden eels are pretty common here. They cost P50 (about one dollar).

 

[Kremis]

wait what, one dollar? lol ? oh your in the phillippines. are they locally found there?

 

[Squishie89]

I don't know if this helps, but this is one of the bigger places LFS order fish from, https://www.qualitymarine.com/Products/Fish/Wild/Eels/Taenioconger-hassi/Spotted-Garden You could ask them to order it for you

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

wait what, one dollar? lol ? oh your in the phillippines. are they locally found there?

Yeah. They're native to this part of the ocean. They're collected locally and about every month or so, I'll see them for sale. (Now that I have mine) I actually wish they weren't because they're not easy to care for. I suspect that most of the fish collected end up not surviving in local reefer's systems as they can't provide the proper care.

Edit: as an afterthought, I actually know all (almost all) the local fish exporters here and I know several divers (the ones that actually catch the fish). If you have a working relationship with a fish importer/wholesaler close to you, I could put both parties in touch with each other and maybe you could order your fish. Not sure if this is really feasible or realistic.... Just thinking out loud?

 

[Kremis]

I just ordered from bluegrass today, hopefully all goes well. thanks everyone for the advice and trying to help!

 

[Kremis]

new eels, just got them today! bluegrass aquatics was great about packaging and shipping dates. already eating.

 

[Rip Van Winkle]

Glad they arrived fine. Your tank looks great :)

 

[Maximizer]

That's awesome!!

 

[Deinonych]

Awesome!

We were doing a shore deep dive off of Puako.
Swim out till it looks deep.
[emoji6]
Made it down to 185' using computers.
Slow beautiful assent.
The eels were at about 160' to 120'.
As you kept heading into shore the shore reef shows up at about 100'.

From memory, 20+ years ago.
[emoji3]

Tec diver, eh?

There are several sites in North Kohala that have garden eels. I've seen them in Maui as well. Almost impossible to photograph on OC. Maybe CCR divers have better luck approaching them. Always cool to see, though!

 

[norfolkgarden]

Tec diver, eh?

There are several sites in North Kohala that have garden eels. I've seen them in Maui as well. Almost impossible to photograph on OC. Maybe CCR divers have better luck approaching them. Always cool to see, though!

Lol, not really.

Deepest dive we ever did.

Was in the Coast Guard for 4 years at the loran Station years ago. back in the late 80s.

Was a wonderful time!

 

[Zack K]

How are they doing?

 

[Kremis]

I have one of the smaller ones that I ordered still, the other one appeared to be eating but in reality was just spitting out food, and eventually died. one of the medium sized ones just disappeared. I ended up with 4. at first there was some aggression between all the eels and a lot of moving holes but eventually they moved less frequently and all settled down. very little aggression after that, besides during feeding time