Ghost Eel

tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
Ok, this is REALLY a surprise! I bought a small snowflake eel from a local LFS and he couldn't get him out of the rock. I suggested he just give me the rock along with the eel. (rock weighed about 4 pounds).

He agreed. For now I just have it in a 55g as it's only about 8". My son and I went to the grocery store and bought fresh, uncooked shrimp, and a 1/2 lb of tuna steak. We cut the tuna into small chunks. We wrapped each chunk with a shrimp into individual feed packets and froze them, except for one serving. We also got kabob sticks to feed the eel. We put a drop each of Seacon, Garlic, and Zoe on the fish, poked it with the stick, stuck it down to his hole in the rock, and in a heart beat he was out munching away at the tuna. He ate almost the whole thing. I had my son just drop the shrimp in next to his hole. Later I was walking by the tank and he was out eating.

MUCH to my amazement, ANOTHER eel came out of the rock and started eating the shrimp, even chased the snowflake away as this eel was easily 16".

This is what it looked like. Now, I haven't been able to find hardly any information about this eel so I'm asking for help. How big does this thing get? What is it's prefered food? What are compatibilities with other fish? (snowflake is the only one in this tank... so far...)

I'll get pictures up when he comes back out. He was out swimming around for a while this evening and I was so shocked and amazed that getting pictures never entered my mind!!! :doh:
 
tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
I don't know if they knew or not. Hopefully it IS a nice surpise BUT I don't know anything about it. Can anyone point me to a site that has information about it? I WOULD like to keep it healthy. :)

It really is a beautiful eel, VERY graceful in the water. I feel better knowing that it ate PLUS it ate food coated with the Seacon, Garlic, and Zoe. :)
 
tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
Great! Thanks! I googled my rear off this evening and I couldn't find hardly anything on it.

Hopefully, it stays in it's rock tonight and tomorrow until I get a chance to go get enough screen door screen to seal the tank up tight.

1' 8"... YIKES!!! At least it's actual body is VERY thin, but it has a really pretty flowing fin(?) along the top and bottom of it. The top fin(?) has a solid white line for the length of it. It hasn't come back out since it's eating venture. It is sticking it's head out though.
 
hooterhead

hooterhead

Member
That's usually all you will see. I've kept them many times at the various LFS's i've worked at and they are a graceful creature. Hopefully this one and your snowflake get along.
 
tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
Yeah, the snowflake is going to get quite a bit bigger then the ghost. I'm going to a different LFS, the one owned by a marine biologist who is VERY enthusiastic about everything saltwater, and I'll ask him about it. If it wouldn't eat shrimp, I'd move it into my 120g but I love my cleaner shrimps. :)
 
tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
OK!!! I finally got pictures of it while it was on the bare side of the tank that we use for feeding purposes. :)

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Beautiful critter! :) Sorry for the dirty glass, we had just done a water change and we didn't get a chance to clean the glass.
 
tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
Ok, this actually happened last night but it's so amazing, I just had to write about it.

Last night I showed my wife how to feed silversides and krill to the puffer, snowflakes, and trigger. (Foxface eats pellets). Anyway, ghost would come out and nibble on the silversides so I just assumed he was getting his fill because he still looked healthy and actually seemed to be growing.

Anyway, we kept the 150 g as a barebottom so after I finished feeding the "pigs", I layed down on the floor so I could watch what was going on up through the bottom. Ghost came out and found a faily complete LARGE silverside laying there. HE SHOVED THE WHOLE THING DOWN HIS THROAT! I mean, the silverside was literally twice as round as he is. He was so blown up he couldn't get back into his hole in the rock. :lol:

This evening he was back in his hole and sticking his head out of his hole in the rock. I'm guessing he won't be out for at least a week. :lol:

And yes, I DO vacuum the bottom of ALL food about an hour after feeding, really helps keep the nitrates down. Ghost did this about 5 minutes after I was done feeding.
 
AQTCJAK

AQTCJAK

RS Sponsor
That is a great bonus. They are very hard to keep Damsels are a very easy way to help maintain there appetite. Silver sides work well however they do prefer live food. Also make sure you keep a screen or netting over the tank the tend to escpe rather frequently
 
tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
Speaking of eels, and triggerfish and puffers. :)

Anyone know where I can buy feeder crabs? I would hate to buy red and blue legged hermits given the price of them. I was told that these fish need to eat these occasionally to keep their teeth filed down.
 
tbittner

tbittner

Well-Known Member
We just fed the predator tank silversides and krill. Ghost actually came out tonight and was fighting with snowflake. They were both going at it pretty good. They must have reached some mutual agreement because they both turned and swam away from each other. Both eels ate a whole silverside before the fight commenced. Neither looks injured and both are swimming around looking for scraps.

Looks like I might need to move one of them, probably the ghost, back to the 55g once I'm done curing another 100 lbs of rock. But then again, most of the 100 lbs is for the predator tank which will give both of them more hiding room and bigger holes in the rock to claim as home.

It's been about a month since we've seen ghost. I feared the worst and assumed that one of the triggers ate him. He is actually looking great! He has gotten plump too. He is about as thick as a scripto pen, about twice as thick as a pencil. Snowflake has gotten huge too. I need to get another koralia for that tank because right now, I only have a 3 in there and it used to be close to the bottom. Snowflake would swim over to it, climb on it, wrap his tail around the back of it, then stick his front half out over the front of it. He looked like he was flapping in a strong wind. Surfing eel! :lol:

It's really funny to see. :)
 
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