Snowflake eel experiences

[reefwars]

Originally Posted by fishoholic

I was thinking of getting one but a friend of mine mentioned that they eat small fish. I had always thought snowflakes were one of the types of eels that normally wouldn't eat fish. Now obviously I wouldn't trust one with tiny goby's but I thought fish that were over 1" would be fine. I did a lot of reading when I googled snowflake eel eating fish and of course got many mixed reviews. Wet web media swears they do not eat fish (only crustaceans) but there was a few threads people posted that said the eel ate their fish.

The snowflake eel I was thinking of getting is 6" which is still pretty small. It would go into my 80g, which makes a good tank for an eel because it doesn't have an overflow for the eel to get stuck in and has an egg create cover. My main concern is that I have a small 1" thornback boxfish and 2 wrasses which are about 2" in size. Obviously I don't want them to get eaten.

Any thoughts? What has been others experiences?

ive had a few of them and ive had them in reeftanks my experience is they do and will eat fish.

during feeding time they are completely dumb and being almost blind doesnt help , ive never seen them hunt fish or stalk them but ive seen some snaps during feeding time.


i lost a huge female clown when i placed an elegance next to my snowflakes lair and the clown got territorial with the eel, well you can guess who won, the female was eaten and the elegance destroyed.


if you have fast moving fish, ones that arnt aggressive and you keep the eel fed well and he has a good lair to hide out in you should be fine as a juvie. when they are young they are out more and free swimming they tend to break out when young and curious. as they get older they look at different things for food and they get a bit territorial with their cave and dont come out as much.


i love them im thinking of getting one my self, becareful when feeding though as soon as food hits the water they know it their smell for meat is unreal ive been bitten by one and when they bite they twist and their teeth are like steak knives lol so not good to get bit on the wrist like i did....people will think you tried to do yourself in lol

if you get one laurie i bet it will be one of your faves they are very personable when young hanging out in weird places making caves throughout, i made a maze of pipe under my rockwork and sand for him to cruise around, most times people didnt even know he was in my tank he loved to cruise around the pipe sticking his head out here and there:P