Peacock Eel Feeding Regime

[Starfishpower]

7.8 isn't too high. In the wild they live in a pH around neutral and yours isn't too far off. Fish are generally okay with living in water with a pH that doesn't exactly match their natural habitat, it is the pH swings that will kill them.

And yes this hobby is very addicting!! It seems like yesterday that I just bought a 40g and I am already setting up another tank!

i know right, im even trying to get hired to a specialty pet shop that just opened near my house just so i can work in the fish section and get even more experience as well as have a personal hand in being able to special order any rare fish i might want. iv got a 55 gallon im working on getting set up and im seriously looking at one of those 30 gallon flat back hex kits that walmart sells all in the next 3 months im even trying to learn scientific names lol

 

[Colin_T]

If you are trying to get work in the LFS and they won't hire you straight out, ask them if you can do some volunteer work. If you work your ass off for a couple of weeks (free of charge) quite often the boss will see how good a job you are doing and offer you some casual work. Even if they don't, keep doing volunteer work a couple of days a week. If any jobs appear you will be the first to hear about them. Also while you are there you will pick up heaps of knowledge about fish keeping and scientific names.

 

[Starfishpower]

If you are trying to get work in the LFS and they won't hire you straight out, ask them if you can do some volunteer work. If you work your ass off for a couple of weeks (free of charge) quite often the boss will see how good a job you are doing and offer you some casual work. Even if they don't, keep doing volunteer work a couple of days a week. If any jobs appear you will be the first to hear about them. Also while you are there you will pick up heaps of knowledge about fish keeping and scientific names.

that seems to be a popular idea lol, and a good one... im considering this stuff as a major and my dad recomended that i go over here to the aquarium in my city and see if i could do some volunteer work there. and that definately sounds like a good idea for the pet store, the guy they hired to head up the fish section has been in the hobby for 13 years and assuming hes got a personality thats atleast tolerable id love to learn from his experience. oh and i think my final plans for the tank are 3 peacock eels, 1 half banded, 1 zig zag, and a little black knife ghost; well planted and set with plenty of cured bogwod; in about 2 years when theyv all grown i can get a bigger tank for the BGK. whatch yall think? sound good?

 

[Mr._Fishy]

I would not recommend a black ghost knife, it gets too big too fast. Mine went from 2.5" to 7" in just 6 months. I am not very good at judging length though, so it might have been a little (or a lot) different. Otherwise that stocking seems okay. They would definitely benefit from a wider tank, but if you already have the tank, I guess it is fine. Be sure to get a sand substrate, as the species you want burrow, and with gravel it is very likely that they will develop skin problems.

Make sure you are 100% sure what eel you are getting. Virtually every book gets them wrong. I would recommend posting pics of the eels here so you can have us id them. My friend thought he was buying a half banded (if that's the one that grows to 6" or so), but ended up with Macrognathus aral, a species that grow to 2 feet.

 

[Colin_T]

I agree with Mr Fishy, don't get the black ghost, they are a pain in behind. They cause too many problems to other bottom dwelling fish and small fish in general.

 

[Starfishpower]

hmmmm all right, ill give it some serious thought about the BGK while im saving up for the equipment. im leaning towards not getting it now, even though i want to. although it does sound like the perfect excuse to get an even bigger tank in a year lol; "i had to have it, my BGK is getting too big" . wouldnt be too bad if i didnt get it since i have considered trying to make this into an eel breeding tank. sand substrate, got it that goes perfectly with my plans actually cause id like a hairgrass carpet for much of the exposed tank floor and iv read it makes good carpets in sand. i suppose thats a topic for the plant forum though. ill def. get some pics up here for ID and some of the tank just cause im already thinking id wana show it off and speaking of pics for ID purposes, iv heard that there are 2 different species of peacock eel... both sold in LFS as simply "peacock eel" and yet are never known to be different to the average consumer. is anyone aware of this? can they let me know what to look for... although if im gona post pics up for yall to ID any way i guess it's not that pressing of an issue right now. i cant wait to get all this set up! and if im successful after a year or 2 i can write an exhastive article on how to properly keep these fish so all the newbies like i am right now will have a clear picture of what it takes to raise spiny eels, and yall can criteque it and let me know if i missed any pertenant information. i know they'd really appreciate it just like i really appreciate all the help yall have given me over the past few days if i have any more questions ill be sure to ask

 

[Mr._Fishy]

A peacock eel is a peacock eel. At least, that is what it is supposed to be. This is why I hate common names so much, you can never know exactly what fish the person is talking about. The different species of Macrognathus genus spiny eels that appear in aquarium trade are M. siamensis, M. aral, M. circumcinctus, M. zebrinus, M. aculeatus, and M. pancalus. The last three species are very rarely seen in trade. The common name "Peacock Eel" is usually given to M. siamensis, but is asserted to other species.

 

[Colin_T]

we call Macrognathus aculeatus, spiney nose eels in Australia. The peacock part comes from the spots on the dorsal fin

 

[Mr._Fishy]

we call Macrognathus aculeatus, spiney nose eels in Australia. The peacock part comes from the spots on the dorsal fin

Are you referring what is called a Peacock Eel in the US? If so, Macrognathus aculeatus is an entirely different species. This article by Neale Monks goes more in depth into id and care of spiny eels.

Ryan

 

[Starfishpower]

are yall sure i should feed him all he will eat once a day, because i just tryd that and it seemed like alot.... i gave him his body length in chopped earthworm, and then some, which was promptly devoured inside of 5 minuets and he was still hungry after that. if thats the way they are then fine but i just wanted to check and make sure i wasnt overfeeding.


i got this from another thread

Mine isn't growing too quickly from 7" on out, but it is growing at about an inch every 2 or 2 1/2 months. It grew from 2.5" to 7" in around 6 months.

The filter that the tank comes with probably isn't going to be enough for your fish. Unless you under stock the tank quite a bit, I would recommend replacing or adding an external.

how quickly do the grow after 7"? in other words how long could i keep one in my 55 gal.? i know that the depth of the tank is the issue, they need to be able to turn around. mine is 12.5" wide. so if i get one that is about 3" (cause most i see in the LFS are about 3 to 5") how long before i need buy and set up a bigger tank?

 

[Mr._Fishy]

It is growing at about an inch every 2 to 2 1/2 months and has been doing so since about 7". I would say get a bigger tank right now, as the fish will outgrow the tank very quickly.

There is a pinned topic either here or in the predatory fish section about keeping tankbusters. CFC said that the tank should be at least 1.5 times the fish's length wide. So your 12.5" wide tank could probably have about an 8" fish.

Ryan

 

[Starfishpower]

noted. and about my eel, that isnt feeding him too much is it?

 

[Mr._Fishy]

If he is still interested in food, then no, it shouldn't be too much. If it seems like a lot, he may just be making up for possibly not being fed enough before. Just a question, where are you getting your earthworms? I used to get mine from a bait shop, but I got some sort of internal parasite from these, so now I just buy them at my lfs. The price difference isn't really that much and there have been no more nasties. If your lfs sells them, I would recommend buying them from them.

Do you have any pics of the tank?

 

[Colin_T]

you can always grow your own worms in an earthworm farm. Bascially a couple of plastic containers with some compost in and the worms live in that. You feed them on kitchen scraps and use the liquid they produce to fertilise your garden plants. You can harvest a few of the worms to feed your fish. You can get worm farms from most local hardwares or garden centres.

 

[Starfishpower]

actually i do get them from a bait shop. ill be sure to get some from the lfs from now on. i wolnt worry about feeding to much now, and ya i can see how he might be making up for missed meals since i bought him from walmart and im not sure how competent their fish keepers are. im a little fuzzy on how to post pics, and every time i try to take a picture of Smaug he hides as though he knows what a camera is and doesnt want his picture taken, ill see what i can do. give me a few days to figure that out.