Moray eel-

[Dangerousdan]

Ive got a 1000mm x 500mm x 500mm tank which im hoping to go brackish with. What i want to know is if this is big enough to keep a moray eel in?
Plus anyone know any good sites on fresh/brackish moray eels?
Thanks very much.
Dan


EDIT: Missed GO out above. D'oh

 

[CFC]

The tanks sounds good, i have 3 in a 1200x500x500 and thats pleanty big enough.
As for sites there really isnt much about and what there is is often inaccurate. If you have any questions then feel free to ask, i have kept 3 species including the notoriously difficult to keep alive Echidna rhodochilus (which is still alive).
The most commonly seen species is Gymnothorax tile which comes in gold spotted and white spotted morphs, many sites wrongly name this fish as Gymnothorax polyuranodon which is a very rare and expensive fish. G.tile is easy to keep with a SG of around 1.010 and upwards to low end marine conditions (1.020) and will readily feed on all manor of meaty frozen foods once acclimatised.

 

[Dangerousdan]

The tanks sounds good, i have 3 in a 1200x500x500 and thats pleanty big enough.
As for sites there really isnt much about and what there is is often inaccurate. If you have any questions then feel free to ask, i have kept 3 species including the notoriously difficult to keep alive Echidna rhodochilus (which is still alive).
The most commonly seen species is Gymnothorax tile which comes in gold spotted and white spotted morphs, many sites wrongly name this fish as Gymnothorax polyuranodon which is a very rare and expensive fish. G.tile is easy to keep with a SG of around 1.010 and upwards to low end marine conditions (1.020) and will readily feed on all manor of meaty frozen foods once acclimatised.

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Thanks very much. Obviously its a couple of months away yet as i got to set tank up for it now i know it will be ok. I was going to get just one as ive not keeped them before and wanted to be sure i could care for it correctly with enough room for it. Is it wise to keep one alone?
I am hoping to get one with white in the colour so its pleasing to hear there is a white spotted morph.
Once i get the tank cycling i will probley have questions to ask.
In mean time i will see what i can learn meself.
Cheers
Danny

 

[Paul_MTS]

1 on it's own will be fine, I don't think you have anything to worry about with keeping them alive. After all mine were kind of a impulse buy when I knew nothing much about them. As long as they look healthy form the word go and eat with in a couple of weeks of getting them it's straight forwards from there.

 

[Barrydwise]

Hi, my son has a 180l light brackish (1.005) with 2 'freshwater' moray, a large silver scat, a fig8 puffer and a green spot puffer. They settled in quickly although it was a bit worrying for the first couple of weeks before they started to feed.

We started off by feeding live river shrimp with a pair of tongs, later also feeding frozen whitebait. They can now hunt the food for themselves although we do still give them a hand with the tongs to make sure they get a good feed. It also stops them going for the puffers - once it's feeding time, anything the eels can catch is food. They once caught a puffer but he got a shock and puffed and the eel then got a shock and let go. It seems like the eels have poor eyesight but a reasonable sense of smell.

They get on well together and even live in the same cave - it's quite cute when you see the two heads sticking out looking for food.

Just got back from the fish shop today - we've now added 3 mono argenteus, another green spot puffer and a stone fish.

 

[Dangerousdan]

Hi, my son has a 180l light brackish (1.005) with 2 'freshwater' moray, a large silver scat, a fig8 puffer and a green spot puffer. They settled in quickly although it was a bit worrying for the first couple of weeks before they started to feed.

We started off by feeding live river shrimp with a pair of tongs, later also feeding frozen whitebait. They can now hunt the food for themselves although we do still give them a hand with the tongs to make sure they get a good feed. It also stops them going for the puffers - once it's feeding time, anything the eels can catch is food. They once caught a puffer but he got a shock and puffed and the eel then got a shock and let go. It seems like the eels have poor eyesight but a reasonable sense of smell.

They get on well together and even live in the same cave - it's quite cute when you see the two heads sticking out looking for food.

Just got back from the fish shop today - we've now added 3 mono argenteus, another green spot puffer and a stone fish.

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What size tank do you keep these in?

 

[Barrydwise]

Hi, my son has a 180l light brackish

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What size tank do you keep these in?

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180l = 40 Imperial Gallons = 48 US Gallons! Sorry, just found a calculator and got curious about capacity as everyone here talks about gallons. I always find this confusing since if you don't specify there's 20% difference between Imperial and US.

It's a Juwel Rio 180 with both the original Juwel filter (but uprated powerhead) and an external filter.

There's no aggression in the tank at the moment although a lot of the fish are juveniles. Everyone gets on well together and have their own preferred areas. We'll keep an eye on things as they grow and maybe we'll either need to get a bigger tank or rehome some of the fish.

Barry

 

[nmonks]

Hi,

Yes, moray eels hunt almost exclusively by smell. In the wild they are nocturnal, and are famous for being able to hunt octopuses, which normally conceal themselves (to visual predators at least) very well.

I have the same 180l tank as you, and my gut feeling is that you probably have overstocked a bit. It'll be fine for now, but in a year or so, that scat will be at least 20 cm long, and the monos not much smaller. Both these fish are heavy polluters, partly because they are very active, but also because they eat a lot. The three puffers may become a problem, too, if they decided to turn territorial on you. Watch for signs of damage, e.g., circular scars on their bodies.

Sounds a nice mix of fish though. Lots of action, except the stonefish, which, if it is what I assume it is (Notesthes robusta), will get very big and not do very much. It's also capable of delivering a very nasty sting. But apart from that, all sounds exciting, good luck!

Cheers,

Neale

 

[CFC]

The "stone fish" appearing in shops recently is Batrachus grunniens which i have been told but havent been able to confirm is a fairly strongly venomous beastie, but funnily enough i dont want to try holding mine to find out

sorry its in French but its difficult find anything on these on the web http/membres.lycos.fr/aqua5/aquariophili...20grunniens.php?

What i do know is that their growth is rapid as the one i have has gone from 3 to 8 inches within a year or so, they are also difficult to feed as they generally only associate live food as prey though i have managed to ween mine onto taking frozen prawns and whitebait from a pair of tonges.

 

[nmonks]

Hi,

If that's what this fish is, Allenbatrachus grunniens, it's a toadfish rather than a stonefish. The toadfish family, Batrachoidae, are related to the anglerfish rather than perciformes. Toadfish are famous for being among the few fish that make noises, and one species, Opsanus tau, is an important laboratory fish. You can hear it here. Famously, people sleeping in boats in harbours will hear the males singing all night, and for years it was a mystery where the sounds were coming from. Or so I was told.

Anyway, Allenbatrachus grunniens is from South East Asia, reaches about 30 cm in length, and is supposed to be euryhaline so should adapt to any salinity. I wouldn't keep it in freshwater though.

Cheers,

Neale

The "stone fish" appearing in shops recently is Batrachus grunniens which i have been told but havent been able to confirm is a fairly strongly venomous beastie, but funnily enough i dont want to try holding mine to find out

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[CFC]

Thats why i put the "stone fish" in quotation marks, though i wasnt aware of the scientific name change, i took the name from Baensch volume 3 which i had thought was quite up to date, but then fish names seem to change like the weather recently

They can certainly make some noise!! Ours can be heard grunting away in the front room from up the hall and through a couple of walls in our bedroom most nights.

From the fishbase link it would seem that Allenbatrachus grunniens is non venomous, though i still dont think i want to put that to the test having seen the spines around the gill plates and on the dorsal fin when i introduced the fish from the bag to the tank

 

[nmonks]

Hi CFC,

Yeah, scientific names change a lot. My scientific training is in systematics and frankly to a certain extent it's all about one know-it-all trying to pull rank on another! Provided everyone agrees that something belongs to a certain species, all the rest is argument over trifles (to paraphrase Elizabeth I).

I don't have Baensch 3; how do you rate it? Useful or exotic?

Allenbatrachus is definitely venomous. Not sure why Fishbase says it isn't. I think all the toadfish are to some extent, but equally, I don't think any are deadly to humans. Even so, anyone who reacts badly to stings, is otherwise weak or ill, etc., should definitely not handle them.

I love the idea of listening to fish while lying in bed! A girlfriend of mine used to keep snapping shrimps, and they sound like a cross between a bonfire and breaking glass. Quite bizarre.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[CFC]

Baensch 3 is quite good, certainly a lot of the "oddball" type fishes are ones that you are never likely to see outside of a lake/river in their native country but they have put a lot of focus into catfish, cichlids and killies which is nice for the more advanced fish keeper.

We have a friend who regularly sleaps on out sitting room floor and he says some nights the noise from all the tanks is like trying to sleap underwater and hearing all the fish talking about you