Ell Question

[Suess00]

I have been wanting to purchase an ell for quiet some time but I want to do the right research and know the facts about them before I purchase them and i harm them or kill them so any help is appreciate it.

1. What is a good starter ell to get?
2. What do they eat and do they strive better in groups or alone?
3. What fish are ells compatible with and what kind of environment should i establish for them.
4. I got a 75 gallon tank with a albino sucker fish in it and another 75 gallon tank with two Tiger Oscars and a albino sucker fish and one 20 gallon tank with nothing in it but some plants so where is the best place for him and should i have alot of rocks plants or what?

Thanks again for any input and it will help me greatly for taking care of it when i get it.

Thanks
Chris

[Blue Cray]

Do you mean eel?

[GoodMike]

i would not put an eel with your oscars, or in the 20 gallon. There are lots of different species, but a pretty good one to start with is the peac0ck eel, they dont get too large. I would stay away from the fire eel as they get huge, and are VERY predatory. most everything else in the spiney eel family would be ok. If you can find the indian striped peac0ck eel, that would be cool...love them.

Eels really need plenty of places to hide, and a substrate that they can dig in, they will eat a variety of foods, but can be picky at first, so i would start with frozen blood worms or live black worms.

[Suess00]

First of sorry its eel lol. I got a pretty deep bed of rocks and got drift wood and little huts that my oscars could fit into.

Sad to say I gave my two oscars away to my brother he has a huge 150 gallon tank and has a little more time to take care of them then me.

What kind of bed are they supposed to have again, the name of the rocks?

[Mustang Boy]

most eels like to dig around in the substrate so a sand would be the best possible substrate for them and make there there is nothing sharp in the tank cause they can hurt themselves on it

[Sea-Agg2009]

Get sand-blast material. It's really cheap, and pretty small grain. It's what I am using with a bichir. My bags are from a company called Dolen, but every petshop should sell the stuff. A 50 lb bag is like 12 bucks.

[Suess00]

Thanks guys for the great info. I just purchased a pea**************** eel today its a little bigger then two inches and i put it in my tank with an albino sucker fish which is a little bit bigger. The tank is 75 gallon and i put in the smooth rocks like yal told me to do.

What is the diet for an eel around 2 inches and around how often do i feed him?

I bought forzen blood worms the little cubs and I gave him one today 5 hours after i got him. He was having a fun time swimming around the aquirium and exploring, but I was watching him for around 20 mintues after I dropped the food in and he would not go anywhere near the food. He got a little taste of the blood worms once they sank to the bottom and started to break up and he went nuts diggin in the gravel for more, they are quit powerful little buggers lol... Is there anything else that I should do at this point? Also will an eel this size eat a cube of blood worms? What do I do of the worms he does not eat, for the package says only give the fish how much he will eat in 5min. Will he find the food for is there another method of feeding him?

Any information would help me out and thanks for helping

Chris

[Fishfirst]

remove the uneaten food asap

[Suess00]

Update on the Eel, he is happy as he can be swimming all over the place when the sun goes down and now around 8:00 he comes out and looks for food already kind of weird it did not take him a long time to know when i feed him.

Also they have a good sense of smell and once he starts to eat them bloodworms he goes crazy and starts to hit at them like he is killing them lol

What kind of other diets should i give him?