ribbon eel
 

been thinking about a blue ribbon eel anyone had succsess with these i hear and read they are hard to keep

No chance of success. All LFS know this. If you saw one is a lfs stay clear of that lfs.
If you scroll down a bit you will see comments to another reefer that asked the same question.

J&L have one right now, I still trust them in most cases :P

Someone needs to go there and give there head a shake.

Irresponsible imports by them of these eels tarnish an excellent reputation.
If we let them know, they will not do it again.

For what its worth, my firiend has had a ribbon eel in his tank for probably a year and it's healthy and happy. And he's a crappy reefer to boot. It might be that it is in a HUGE tank or he might just be lucky. Dunno... I wouldn't say it's impossible but luck might not be on your side.

I was at J&L today and the ribbon eel they had there still had not eaten, btw.

That's sad to hear, It's a mighty fine looking one :cry:

While the blue and black species are difficult to care for you could go with the white/ghost ribbon eel which is much easier to care for. The hardest part is just making sure it stays in the tank. I kept one for a few years but lost it in the move when it found its way out of the holding tank.

Yeah blue ribbon eels are a definite no no. I'll have to pop into J&L to have a word. Let's not jump t o conclusions though... I've talked to them about a couple of other specimens I've found in their store that are not suitable for captivity. The explanation I received is that their collectors can be unpredictable. the store sends in an order, but obviously it cannot be filled to satisfaction all the time; so to make up for the lacking specimens, they just throw in whatever. Sometimes these extra surprise fish are just thrown in for no apparent reason. The problem with surprise specimens is that they're surprises... and surprises aren't always good things. FWIW, I've also never heard of a J&L employee insisting inaccurate information upon an unaware aquarist with the goal of making a sale; they're generally upfront and honest if something has a craptastic chance of survival. That's my experience at least

edit: good call on the white ribbon eel. a beautiful species and not badly suited for captivity. Ideally you'll want one that's eating prepared food at the store as they have a reputation of not being easy (but not impossible either) to wean onto prepared feed. Its a species that's on my wanted list.

Justin, J&L has to make it clear to their suppliers that they will not accept substitutes in the form of unsuitable species and the suppliers will stop doing this.
Nice to see you will be talking to J&L.

A friend had one, it was happy and eating until it jumped. She had to work a little to get it eating to begin with, definitely not an easy species, but not impossible either

well i read all your posts and decided that the eel would have a better chance in my tank than in the stores. i bought him and on the way home was in a major car wreck. the eel was fine but we wherent. that was the begining of feb. no the eel is very happy took me about 3 weeks to get him to eat but now he is vibrant and full of life eating like a pig i read everything i could find and have been reaserching for a year because i always wanted one. they are a very demanding spieces but also doable. i have no regrets about taking him on and look forward to keeping him a long time. the eel is currently about 3 feet long.

ribbon eel
 

i had one for 11 months before it ate something which got lodged in it's throat(at least i think so-large bulge behind the natural bulge )-i got it very young while it was black and only a foot long(ended up being 3 feet long and starting to turn blue)it took about a month before it started eating silversides-most of the time it hid under the rocks and you only saw it's head .if you decide to try one-make sure it's eating before you leave the store

its been in my tank for 2 months wasnt eating when i got him but i got him eating using chromis and krill

how about some Pictures of the eel

i will try but he doesnt come out much but i will wait tonight when i feed and get a pic

finally got a pic