Brian G Posted March 20, 2009 Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 I have had a zig zag eel in a small 15 gal tank for 5 months or so, I got it when it was only 3 inches long, was going to put it in my larger tank when it gets abit bigger however it doesnt seem to be growing. I have been feeding it bloodworms every 2-3 days and can visually see that it is eating as I am hand feeding it.. My question is how long does it take one of these fishes to grow to adult size, can a zig zag's growth be stunted? I have only afew plants in the tank but there are some caves that I fashoned for it so it has plenty of shelter from its only other tank mate a small angel fish. Mabie I am being over anxious for it to grow into a larger size? But if there is anything I am doing that can be changed any advice would be greately appreciated. Also can a fire eels growth be stunted or would it just out grow the tank to the point that it would just keep trying to escape? I was thinking of putting two fire eels in with a ray in approx a 65 gal. tank (48L 18W 18H) would this be possible and could I throw in some other fish to occupy the rest of the tank. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
African_Fever Posted March 20, 2009 Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 I've personally never kept eels, but from what I know of them their growth can be quite slow. 'Stunting' is usually going to be due to a lack of food and water changes rather than too small of an aquarium. The fire eels will grow large, but if you get them small I'm guessing it'll take quite a while for them to outgrow a 65. Not too sure what kind of ray you have, but NO ray can live for very long in a 65 gallon tank (1 year is pushing it, and that's doing multiple 50% water changes per week); it's just too small for the life of the ray. A 180 would be the minimum for any ray, and that's only if you've got true hystrix. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Brian G Posted March 20, 2009 Author Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 Dont have a ray yet or the fire eels this is just my next future tank idea was thinking of building another plywood tank, mabie this will prompt me to do it, perhaps a 180-200 gal. would work then? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
African_Fever Posted March 20, 2009 Report Share Posted March 20, 2009 Size of the tank depends on what rays you can get (and hystrix are now available from one supplier in the US). If it's hystrix, you'd probably be fine with a tank 6'x24"x18", but for motoro's and most anything else I'd go at least 30" wide to give you as much space a possible. A lot of motoro's would/could be fine in a tank that wide for 5+ years, but some may outgrow it faster than that. Ply tanks are definitely the way to go with rays; you can actually build a tank large enough for them for life without having to drain the bank like a glass or acrylic tank does! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TanisD Posted March 26, 2009 Report Share Posted March 26, 2009 I've had my larger fire eel in my 90 gallon for 6 months now and he has not grown very much at all they grow slow from my experiences Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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