Brian G Posted December 8, 2008 Report Share Posted December 8, 2008 I have a 120gal. 48" long 24"wide 24" tall plywood tank and I would like to get a Fire Eel have been reading up on them and have been getting the tank ready( burying pvc pipe under silica sand substrate some driftwood and a few densely planted areas with artificial plants I plan on attatching suction cups on the plants so they dont get "uprooted" this will be the Eels home no other inhabitants exept for mabie some freshwater shrimp or crayfish or something like that. I have some questions and hope someone will be able to answer would like to know with this setup how big the Eel is going to get and since they are nighttime fish would it be better to put moonlight lighting on the tank or just get some floating plants to help dim the lighting I want to try to make it so he/she will come out into the open as much as possible. What is the best way to keep earthworms, and get them ready to be fed to the Eel do you just soak them before hand??? And last what is the best place to get an Eel I live on the Alberta Sask border and I really dont know any reputable fish stores for these kind of fishes. Oh ya on my tank I have a plywood top with hinges on the back and latches on the front so I think all I have to do is put some screen where the HOB filters are and the water heaters. Do I need a protien skimmer with this tank size or would frequent water changes be enough and are these strictly freshwater fish or brackish I just want to make the perfect environment for the eel. Hopefully someone can answer some of my questions and im sure I will have more but for now any help would be apperciated THX. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vallisneria Posted December 8, 2008 Report Share Posted December 8, 2008 I dont' know anything about fire eels but I thought i'd try to help with the earth worms. You can keep Red wiggler worms(compost worms) in a small rubber maid. You get help with composting your veggies and you can pull out a couple worms whenever you need to feed them. Just rinse and they are good to go. They are a bit smaller then earthworms but work great. I used to feed them to some of my larger fish and they went crazy for them. Or if you dont' want to keep red wigglers you can buy worms at wholesale sport or the fishin' hole now that its too cold to dig some up outside. They have trout worms and dew worms in bags you keep in the fridge. The trout worms are the size of a regular earthworm. They cost about 3$ for a bag of 10 or so. I've never done anything to clean them besides rinsing the dirt off. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
stratos Posted December 16, 2008 Report Share Posted December 16, 2008 (edited) Dragonfish Canada can get you fire eels direct from Indonesia - any size and number you want - at a very affordable price. Typically we sell the larger ones (12-14 inches) for around $40. The extra cost for you would be the shipping of about $75 (for an entire styrofoam box) via Westjet from Vancouver to Saskatchewan. Thus, were you to want a trio of larger fire eels, it would cost about $200 even. For the same price we could get you six smaller ones (6-8 inches). Ideally you would find some other people to go in on a purchase with you, since you would have extra shipping space in the box already paid for, but not used. If you are near Regina or Saskatoon there may be some people interested in going in on an import with you. We also cooperate closely with Charles of Canadian Aquatics, so it might be possible to piggy-back fish (South Americans are his specialty) from him too. I'd think a 120 gallon tank should do perfect for a trio of larger eels or 6 smaller ones; I wouldn't think they would get much longer than 18-20 inches within a couple years. As for how to keep fire eels, they are super easy and hardy. Provide some hiding spaces (anything from pvc tubing to terra-cotta pipes work well, and of course driftwood). They are quite peaceful but will eat smaller fish. I have never tried mixing invertebrates, so can't say whether they would snap pieces off them. Fire eels do not grow especially fast, so buying them when they are larger can represent decent value. You can go through the trouble of earthworms, but cut up market prawn or beef heart will be taken readily; I have never tried any kinds of pellets with mine so can't comment on them for feeding purposes. One warning: Fire eels are escape artists, so make sure that you have no holes they can sneak out of in your lid/canopy system. Here is a link to some photos of fire eels we brought in a few months back (at the bottom of the page): http://www.dragonfish.ca/current_stock_list.htm Do a youtube seach of Denmark's Aquarium and you can see some nice videos of the ones they have there; they keep a couple 18-24 inch monsters along with high end Leopodi rays; pretty neat combination. Edited December 16, 2008 by stratos Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian G Posted January 23, 2009 Author Report Share Posted January 23, 2009 (edited) I didnt think that you could keep eels with rays thought the eels would bury around and get stung?? Pretty cool though! Edited January 23, 2009 by Brian G Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Earthgirl Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 I didnt think that you could keep eels with rays thought the eels would bury around and get stung??Pretty cool though! Sting rays don't go around and sting things..... They only release the stinger when the tail is grabbed. It is a defense mechanism. Fire eels are an excellent addition to a ray tank as long as they are bigger than the rays mouth so that they don't think it is food! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CORVETTE Posted January 27, 2009 Report Share Posted January 27, 2009 I've kept rays and eels together and had no problems. just give the eels a place to hang out. Ray's do sting things with there stingers i've watched my female motoro repeatly tried to spike one of my males after she had already bred with a different male. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
J&J Posted April 22, 2009 Report Share Posted April 22, 2009 I have a 120gal. 48" long 24"wide 24" tall plywood tank and I would like to get a Fire Eel have been reading up on them and have been getting the tank ready( burying pvc pipe under silica sand substrate some driftwood and a few densely planted areas with artificial plants I plan on attatching suction cups on the plants so they dont get "uprooted" this will be the Eels home no other inhabitants exept for mabie some freshwater shrimp or crayfish or something like that. I have some questions and hope someone will be able to answer would like to know with this setup how big the Eel is going to get and since they are nighttime fish would it be better to put moonlight lighting on the tank or just get some floating plants to help dim the lighting I want to try to make it so he/she will come out into the open as much as possible. What is the best way to keep earthworms, and get them ready to be fed to the Eel do you just soak them before hand??? And last what is the best place to get an Eel I live on the Alberta Sask border and I really dont know any reputable fish stores for these kind of fishes. Oh ya on my tank I have a plywood top with hinges on the back and latches on the front so I think all I have to do is put some screen where the HOB filters are and the water heaters. Do I need a protien skimmer with this tank size or would frequent water changes be enough and are these strictly freshwater fish or brackish I just want to make the perfect environment for the eel. Hopefully someone can answer some of my questions and im sure I will have more but for now any help would be apperciated THX. I have had a few of these guys before. They like things such as pvc tubing and things they can wrap there bodies around. The moonlight lighting is an excellent idea but there is no guarentees on it actually working the only time mine ever came out was the odd time during the day but always at night regardless of the lights. I feed mine mysis shrimp so you don't really need worms. Also they do prefer sand substrate over gravel. They are strictly freshwater and a great place in Edmonton to get them is Big Als they seem to have them every time I am in there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
triggerhappy Posted April 23, 2009 Report Share Posted April 23, 2009 ive kept three motoros and a large two foot fire eel and a two foot tire track eel together without problemsin my 180gal...actually the only problem i found with the eels is that they are VERY good at finding open spaces and even willing to push anything they think they can open. guess he wanted to find out if the water was better on the other side of the glass... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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