Hitchhiker Eel ID please

[iishanreef]

hey everyone, i discovered this eel im my reef tank. must have come with some LR i got a few years back. i would like help to ID so i can decide how to deal with it. it is about 6-8 inches long and i must have had it for 4-5 years in my tank (without even knowing it... although now i know where all my gobies and shrimp went lol). Thanks a bunch

[iishanreef]

also, im quite sure its some kind of moray because of the round gill holes and head shape.

[eli@fijireefrock.com]

I think its a golden dwarf eel. a full size image would help better identity.

[Delphinus]

No effing way. Dude, that is perhaps the coolest hitchhiker ever, it ranks up there with that dude in Toronto a couple years back who found a wee little octopus in his tank.

If it has remained that small over that long, then I would agree it is probably a golden dwarf moray, Gymnothorax meletremus. They don't get much bigger than 8".

Are the eyes blue or is there any blue in the eyes? It's hard to tell by the pictures but the clincher with golden dwarf moray is that there is blue in the eyes.

Other possibilities, if the eyes have no blue:

- white ribbon eel (not to be confused with blue ribbon eels, different species, and blue ribbons don't live long in captivity), I think they can have yellow/gold colour variations. http://www.liveaquaria.com/product/p...37&pcatid=1737

- golden moray. I forget the species name but there is another golden moray but they get much larger than 6" to 8".

My vote is the golden dawrf moray. To be honest he looks a little young to me, are you sure there's no possibility he could have been introduced sooner than a few years ago? The colour of yours is identical to those that I've had myself but when they were young. As they get older the gold fades into yellow and eventually a sort of vanilla cream kind of colour. Although maybe that's just been my experience and it could be different for others.

Buy a lottery ticket. This fish would cost you no less than $150 at the stores if you wanted to buy one. I predict the price of them going up actually as it's getting harder and harder to collect out of Hawaii (where they usually are collected from).

My advice is keep him. They are the coolest eels and the most reef safe out of any of the morays (on account of their small size). They're no threat to anything but the smallest shrimp and fish. I have mine in with wrasses and and other smallish fish. I feed him krill every 2-3 days, I use tongs I just keep offering a shrimp at a time until he stops taking them. That can be anywhere from 1 to 6 individual pieces of krill, depending on how hungry he is.

They are escape artists though so make sure you have a good cover.

I'd totally offer to take him off your hands if you wanted to get rid of him but I don't see myself getting to Bowen Island too terribly soon. Bummer.

[lastlight]

to find something like that after YEARS of it existing in your tank is mind-blowing.

[kien]

WOW, that's cool a hitchhiker find! It has certainly renewed my hope in one day finding the Loch Ness Monster! Just because we don't see him doesn't mean he's not there, people!

[iishanreef]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

Are the eyes blue or is there any blue in the eyes? It's hard to tell by the pictures but the clincher with golden dwarf moray is that there is blue in the eyes.

are you sure there's no possibility he could have been introduced sooner than a few years ago?

My advice is keep him. They're no threat to anything but the smallest shrimp and fish. I
They are escape artists though so make sure you have a good cover.

The eyes dont have any blue, they are black and goldish (but i will take a closer look and try go get some better pis next weekend, my tank is at my parents house). there is almost no chance i got him less than 4 years ago: my first tank was 50g and after it was cycled and LR cured i bought 2 15-20lbs LR that was fully cured (encrusting coral and sponges all over) so i suspect this was where i came from b/c the rock was very cavernous. a year or 2 later i upgraded to 120g and bought 100 lbs of LR but it was not cured and came out of the curing bins at my LFS, i finished curing it in the tank and i think it is unlikely that it could survive the process. after the big tank was ready i moved the contents of 50g in. since then ive only bought small pieces of coral. I am DEFINATLY keeping him, but hes in his own 50g tank now because small gobies are my fav and before i discovered him he ate all that i put in (cuz thats all he had to survive off of, no hard feelings). and his tank has a very secure plexiglas lid i cut myself with no openings he could possibly get out of (only tiny air holes arent plugged by heater/pump wires).

[iishanreef]

Originally Posted by Delphinus

My vote is the golden dawrf moray.

im inclined to agree after browsing some online photos (despite lack of blue in eyes, but ill double check asap)

[iishanreef]

Originally Posted by kien

finding the Loch Ness Monster

yes thats exactly what i thought when i came home drunk one night and looked around in the tank with a flashlight, saw his tail scoot down a burrow and he scared the hell out of me lol. as soon as i can ill post some pics of the trap i used to catch him. so happy i didnt have to drain the "lake" to find this Loch Ness Monster lol

[Delphinus]

Maybe it's more like "if the eyes are blue then it's a golden dwarf moray but not all golden dwarf morays have blue eyes". I can't remember where I read about the blue eyes so can't verify.

I'm reasonably certain that's what you have there, blue eyes or not!

I love these guys to pieces. A couple years back I did a dive in Hawaii and when the dive master "so what are things people are hoping to see?" she was all taken aback when I said "GOLDEN DWARF MORAY!" Apparently people usually say things like "yellow tangs" or "turtles" or whatever but apparently nobody had ever asked to see a golden dwarf moray before that day.

(And we did find one, BTW. So kudos to them, they're not the easiest things to spot!)