Hello All, New To Tff

[vrob]

Hello all, I'm Rob and I'm new to TFF and the hobby. I've had my tank running for about 2 months now and been coming here often for advice so I figured I'd join

. 
A little about me:
Like I said, I'm rather new to fish keeping but I'm picking it up pretty quick.
 
I've got a 26gal bow front freshwater tank with:
3 Head-and-Taillight Tetras
6 "GloFish" (3 danios and 3 tetras)
1 Common pleco (about 4 inch or so)
1 Tire track eel (about 7 inch or so)
(I know the pleco and eel will get too big for the 26gal, getting a 150gal-200gal later when they get bigger)
 
Well I hope I've introduced myself well enough. Happy to be here and I'll try to be active and involved
 
THANKS!

 

[Ch4rlie]

to the Forum.
 
Glad you're already aware of the track eel and the common pleco will be too big for your 26 gal tank. Upgrading sooner rather than later is always best imo.
 
Anyway, hope you enjoy the forum and glad to have you on board.

 

[Ninjouzata]

to TFF! Hope you enjoy it here.
 
Glad you plan on uprading, and as Ch4rlie said, the sooner the better. Craigslist is a great place to find large tanks at a decent price, if you havn't looked there already.

 

[vrob]

Thanks! I have been on craigslist alot looking and seen some really awesome deals. Planning on upgrading as soon as I can but for now they are both still small and happy in their perspective lairs lol

 

[Ninjouzata]

Do you have any pics to share?
 
And just checking, what sort of substrate do you have? Eels are best kept on sand.

 

[vrob]

I tried to post pics in the OP but it kept saying they were too big. I'm out right now but I'll try again when I get home. For substrate, I have gravel . I know sand is best but he wasn't a planned addition. I have plans to switch it out though. Fortunately I have an oddball amongst oddballs and he prefers to lay on top of his cave when he's not inside/behind it lol and hasn't shown much interest in digging.

 

[vrob]

Here are a few pics as requested Ninjouzata. The first is the tank, second my tire track eel (Sheldon) chilling beside his "lair"
 

 

 

[Ninjouzata]

Colorful Glad to see a black background..it really makes fish colors pop.
 
Aww, he looks adorable. Glad you plan on switching to sand. Do you think you'll be doing it with this tank or waiting for the bigger one? Does your eel have a name? (Like Bob or George)

 

[vrob]

Here's another good one i just dug up of him. His name is Sheldon and he's the pride of my tank (IMO). I plan on doing sand in the bigger tank but if i think i'm going to end up with this tank for a while then i'll probably go ahead and swap it out or if i start to notice him digging more.
 

 

[Ninjouzata]

Eels are so funny the way they poke out of things. Super adorable name! One of mine (a half-banded) is named Nigel. I havn't thought of a name for the other one.
 
Even if he isn't digging it's best to have sand 'cause when they move across the gravel and scrape themselves it can lead to an infection. I'm not trying to scare you I just tend to be cautious.

 

[vrob]

Yeah I have read that before too. Maybe i'll look into some sand this weekend. How similar to tire track eels are half banded eels? I've actually been searching the forums alot for how much i should be feeding him, I find alot about their diets and stuff but havent really seen anything about how much he should be eating. My LFS says he needs "1/2 frozen bloodworm cube every other day" but he comes out every morning looking for breakfast when i feed the other fish. I'm tempted to feed him 1/2 a cube every day but i dont want to over feed him. And it's so fun to hand feed him so it's even more tempting lol

 

[Ninjouzata]

How big is he right now? I split half a cube of bloodworms between my half-banded, indian striped peacock eel, leopard bushfish, and black ghost knife 5 days a week, 1 day of brine shrimp, and 1 day of fasting.
They are all small right now though. They'll gladly eat a full cube, too.

 I am hoping to get them on hikari carnivore pellets as well.

 

[vrob]

I'd say he's about 6 or 7 inches or so. Sounds like half a cube goes a long way, also sounds like he doesnt need to skip meals every other day lol

 

[Ninjouzata]

Mine are all small, the biggest is the striped peacock eel and he is 4". I honestly am not very experienced with them, having only had them all for a few months (the peacock just 2 weeks), but I hope I helped a little?

 

[ShinySideUp]

Regarding the substrate. When you get your larger tank it is possible to have gravel in part of the tank and sand in another. I bought my 640 litre tank over a year ago and have one third sand for the cory's and two-thirds gravel ('cos it's easier to clean IMO). I separate the two substrates with a pair of Juwel tank decorations. There is some bleed over of gravel into the sand (but strangely not the other way) but every now and again I siphon the sand/gravel mix out, separate the two using a kitchen sieve, and put each back into it's own side; doesn't take long and it gets a good clean too.