African Cichlids And Fire Eel

[RachelMallory]

I still have my two peacock eels in my tank and my cichlids are really picking on them, I've found another tank that my eels can go to. What if I put a fire eel or a tire track eel? I have had bad luck with a fire eel, I had one a while ago and he would not eat at all. And he died, so my LFS has tire tracks and fire and I'm not sure which I should get, what do you guys think?

 

[onidrase]

I think you should just not get an eel. From what I know, African cichlids like a high pH. Eels really don't. How big is your tank, even? A lot of these things get huge. Eels also from what I've seen tend to be kinda lazy and just bury themselves in the substrate and wait around, which would probably be why they're such an easy target for the cichlids to pick on them.

Synodontis catfish make a much better choice for a bottom dweller in an aquarium. I know they're not as "cool" or "unique" but they actually suit the water conditions of an african tank in most cases.

Also, tire tracks and fire eels 2-3 feet long, you'd need a pretty huge tank for em.

 

[josh_g]

I have my fire eel in with sa cichlids and never have any problems probably bcoz he's about 60cm and the cichlids just look at him like what the hell? Not lazy at all swims around the majority of the day. Buzzes in and out of my hands quality fish they are

 

[RachelMallory]

I think you should just not get an eel. From what I know, African cichlids like a high pH. Eels really don't. How big is your tank, even? A lot of these things get huge. Eels also from what I've seen tend to be kinda lazy and just bury themselves in the substrate and wait around, which would probably be why they're such an easy target for the cichlids to pick on them.

Synodontis catfish make a much better choice for a bottom dweller in an aquarium. I know they're not as "cool" or "unique" but they actually suit the water conditions of an african tank in most cases.

Also, tire tracks and fire eels 2-3 feet long, you'd need a pretty huge tank for em.

I've seen a lot of fire eels in with cichlids though. So I'm not really sure. It's a 55 for now, but the eels at the LFS are like an inch or two long (and my cichlids are babies right now). But I'm planning on getting a 125 to maybe a 200 gal in the next year or so. Mine never hid when it was just them but the cichlids pick on them so now they do hide all day :[ poor things. I don't know why they don't pick on the fire eels, but I really love the freshwater eels, so I would really like to keep one, I also have a 10 gallon shrimp tank which I could put the fire in til he gets a little bigger, although I don't really want to keep him in such a small tank.