New Eel = )

Tynk · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 150

Hello fishy folks.

I hope those of you who celebrate Halloween had a great and spooky
time! = )

I picked up a new Peacock Eel the other night.
It's only 3-4" long, but was obviously a well fed baby!
I usually see them starving in shops because they're being fed flake
foods.
They eat worms, not flake. = /
I have wanted to get my other eel a buddy for a while. His last buddy
came from Petsmart but turned out to be carrying internal parasites.
He wasted away slowly, even though it ate well.
Now the problem.
After quarantine, do I add them both back into the 75g like I had
planned, or just the new baby?
My original (striped) peacock eel went into a male Betta's tank
temporarily.
They have become buddies. This eel was in the 75g with other fish and
never behaved like this before.
It had been months since his last buddy died, so it's not just from
being lonely. He didn't take to any of the fish in that tank.
Their friendship is an odd one, but neat to see.
The eel will go up to the betta and vice versa. The betta often drapes
his fins over the eel and the eel seems to like it.
I've even seen them hanging out like that, then the betta slowly
raised up about a 1/4 of an inch...the eel looked up...and then
positioned himself so that the bettas fins were once again draping
over him.
The hang out in the cave, they eat together. This doesn't often happen
and when it does between 2 different species, do you break it up
because we think one of them would be better off with it's own kind?
Of course the easiest thing would be to add them both to the 75g and
problem solved.
Nope. There's females in the 75g and this male is a little too docile
to handle them.
He'd end up getting shredded. So the easy solution isn't an option.
Hmm...what to do, what to do.

Archived from group: rec>aquaria>freshwater>misc

Reel McKoi · Joined: 27 Sep 2007 Posts: 385

"Tynk" wrote in message @o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com...
> Hello fishy folks.
>
> I hope those of you who celebrate Halloween had a great and spooky
> time! = )

We went to a great party. We ate until we waddled. Good clean fun, good
music and great company . Hope you guys also enjoyed the holiday. Smile

> I picked up a new Peacock Eel the other night.
> It's only 3-4" long, but was obviously a well fed baby!
> I usually see them starving in shops because they're being fed flake
> foods.
> They eat worms, not flake. = /

Wont the other fish grab the worms before he can get to them?

> I have wanted to get my other eel a buddy for a while. His last buddy
> came from Petsmart but turned out to be carrying internal parasites.
> He wasted away slowly, even though it ate well.
> Now the problem.
> After quarantine, do I add them both back into the 75g like I had
> planned, or just the new baby?
> My original (striped) peacock eel went into a male Betta's tank
> temporarily.
> They have become buddies. This eel was in the 75g with other fish and
> never behaved like this before.
> It had been months since his last buddy died, so it's not just from
> being lonely. He didn't take to any of the fish in that tank.
> Their friendship is an odd one, but neat to see.
> The eel will go up to the betta and vice versa. The betta often drapes
> his fins over the eel and the eel seems to like it.
> I've even seen them hanging out like that, then the betta slowly
> raised up about a 1/4 of an inch...the eel looked up...and then
> positioned himself so that the bettas fins were once again draping
> over him.

Interesting. Do ells live in communities with other eels? If so he may be
lonely for company.

> The hang out in the cave, they eat together. This doesn't often happen
> and when it does between 2 different species, do you break it up
> because we think one of them would be better off with it's own kind?
> Of course the easiest thing would be to add them both to the 75g and
> problem solved.
> Nope. There's females in the 75g and this male is a little too docile
> to handle them.
> He'd end up getting shredded. So the easy solution isn't an option.
> Hmm...what to do, what to do.

Eeek,... that is a hard one to make. Maybe move the female bettas to
another tank?
--

RM....
~~~~ } ~~~ }

Tynk · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 150

On Nov 1, 12:27?pm, "Reel McKoi" wrote:
> "Tynk" wrote in message
>

> > I picked up a new Peacock Eel the other night.
> > It's only 3-4" long, but was obviously a well fed baby!
> > I usually see them starving in shops because they're being fed flake
> > foods.
> > They eat worms, not flake. = /
>
> Wont the other fish grab the worms before he can get to them?

In most pet shops they're not being fed properly.
Many of the employees are ignorant of their needs, so it's not a big
surprise. = /

As for my own feeding method in the 75g that I came up with while
trying to entice my original eel to eat frozen bloodworms instead of
live blackworms.....
I thawed out the bloodworms in a cup of tank water.
I take my medicine dropper (for fish feeding only) and release a nice
amount at the oposite side the eel is.
Then, after all fish are over on the other side I release a nice
amount inside his cave, behind a certain plant and then another inside
a rock cave made out of pieces of slate.
Sure some of the small fish can get into these hidey places (the
angels only wish they could), but the eel gets his fair share.
At first he would eat them and the other fish cleaned up the worms.
After a while he gave in and ate one worm. Just one. I saw him do it.
You could almost see the pout on his face, and saying......"I'm just
gonna eat one so I don't die, but that's all I'm eatin!"
The days after he started chowing down.
His late buddy never had a prob with frozen blood worms. As much as
that one ate, it was obvious he was so hungry.
Poor thing not only had to deal with no food to eat at the shop, but
had internal parasites to boot.
He wasn't skin and bones, but wasn't meaty either. I just thought he
needed some food.

Now when it comes to feeding the original eel that is temporarily in
with his betta buddy, I don't have to do anything special.
These two are just too cute.
I drop in the worms, the betta's over there in a flash.
The eel pops his head out of the log and sniffs (it looks like he's
sniffing the water)...then flys out and goes round and round the tank
in excitement, then goes back to the food pile and runs off with it.
After the eel settles with it the two can be seen eating at their
leisure.
I love how the eel will move one of the betta's crown points in his
finnage that is in the way of a worm.

> Do ells live in communities with other eels? If so he may be
> lonely for company.

Most of the Spiny eels are pretty solitary when fully grown, but these
smaller types seem to be more social than the larger ones.....Fire
eels, Tiretrack, etc. Those types of spiny get large and need to be by
themselves.

As for the striped Peacock eels, in my 75g they were always together.
Not just near each other, but usually touching.
Probably why my original eel likes when the betta drapes his fins over
his body.
Now if he was this lonely and needed the physical comfort of feeling
another near him, wouldn't he have been doing any of this behavior in
the 75g? He was in it for months after his buddy died. His friendship
with the betta was instant. It was like they were old buds meeting up
again after a long while of being apart.
This is why I don't think his behavior is out of total lonliness. I'm
sure it plays a good part in it, but he showed none of this in the
other tank.

>
> > The hang out in the cave, they eat together. This doesn't often happen
> > and when it does between 2 different species, do you break it up
> > because we think one of them would be better off with it's own kind?
> > Of course the easiest thing would be to add them both to the 75g and
> > problem solved.
> > Nope. There's females in the 75g and this male is a little too docile
> > to handle them.
> > He'd end up getting shredded. So the easy solution isn't an option.
> > Hmm...what to do, what to do.

>
> Eeek,... that is a hard one to make. Maybe move the female bettas to
> another tank?
>
> - Show quoted text -

I have other males in all the other tanks aroud the house. None of
them can go with the females.
Some are too aggressive and the others are too docile.
When female bettas sense a male is showing what they perceive as
weakness, they want him out of there.
In the wild he would simply be chased off, but in a tank there's no
where for him to go and ends up being shredded.
This is with average females, not overly aggressive.
There are some that will not tolerate a male near them and that's
that.
I've had many like that and 2 just recently died of old age.
Can't say I was overly sad by their passing.
But anyway, because of the individual behaviors of the males I have,
or some tank sizes, changing the females isn't an option either.

Reel McKoi · Joined: 27 Sep 2007 Posts: 385

"Tynk" wrote in message @o38g2000hse.googlegroups.com...

(brevity snips)

> In most pet shops they're not being fed properly.
> Many of the employees are ignorant of their needs, so it's not a big
> surprise. = /

The just dump the food in and move on to the next tank. That's the way it
is in most stores. Sad

> Poor thing not only had to deal with no food to eat at the shop, but
> had internal parasites to boot.

I'm sure I saw something that treats internal fish parasites in one of my
catalogs from Foster and Smith.

> I love how the eel will move one of the betta's crown points in his
> finnage that is in the way of a worm.

I wouldn't separate these two. Can you possibly get them their own tank?
Wink

Maybe check the Salvation Army or Goodwill stores? I've seen some
fantastic prices in these stores on tanks and stands.

> But anyway, because of the individual behaviors of the males I have,
> or some tank sizes, changing the females isn't an option either.

This is a problem with aggressive fish. I'll be sticking to non-aggressives
from now on. The worst fish I have now is a gold male groumi and he's not
really all that bad. He only chases the female once in awhile. The store
offered to take him back for another female if he gets too nasty. I'm going
to add a blue female to that tank and call it full. All the new tetras are
doing fine so far. I need more rainwater.... I wish we'd get some rain.
Smile

--

RM....
~~~~ } ~~~ }

Tynk · Joined: 16 Aug 2007 Posts: 150

On Nov 2, 12:34?pm, "Reel McKoi" wrote:

> > Poor thing not only had to deal with no food to eat at the shop, but
> > had internal parasites to boot.
>
> I'm sure I saw something that treats internal fish parasites in one of my
> catalogs from Foster and Smith.

Jungle makes an antiparasitic food, however I've never had anything
actually eat it.
Being that the eels are specific in what foods they'll eat at all, I
would probably have to make my own using bloodworms.

>
> > I love how the eel will move one of the betta's crown points in his
> > finnage that is in the way of a worm.
>
> I wouldn't separate these two. Can you possibly get them their own tank?

See this is why I'm going back and forth with leaving them together.
I wonder if the eel is lacking anything because he's not with any of
his own kind.
I can't find too much information specifically about these eels being
more social than eels like the Fire eels or TireTracks....they're not
when adults, but the pecocks more laid back.
If I did keep them together, I would have to set up a larger tank just
for them