Garden Eel

[Sea Turtle]

Hey everyone.

I picked up a garden eel this past Saturday. I brought him home and put him into the tank with a net. I held it on the bottom and he went into the sand. That day he peeked out a couple of time and even ate a small piece of mysis shrimp. That night I went to bed and I haven't seen him since. His hole has been covered up. I looked in the sump and all around the outside of the tank. Is this normal for him to disapear like this? Can he stay under the sand for days? I also pushed the sand around a little last night where his hole was and I didn't see him? He was $75 and I am worried he is dead under the sand somewhere. Any thoughts or ideas?

 

[Sea Turtle]

Good news. I found the garden eel last night. He is in the back of the tank behind all the rocks in an are where the light comes through. He ate some mysis last night also. Do you think that he will ever come out to the front of the tank?

 

[Petsolutions]

It's hard to tell where he may end up. Garden eels are really community oriented, and are generally kept in groups of several in one habitat. They are known to be pretty challenging little guys, and having 10 or 15 inches of deep sand in the bottom of the tank for them can be a bit daunting to most people. I'm not sure if they develop one particular hole and live their days only in that spot or if they pick up and relocate. I would guess it is possible they may relocate from time to time, and I would bet they probably are going to do any moving around at night. I am by no means an expert on garden eels, but I did do quite a bit of reading on them a year or so ago when I saw a really great exhibit of them set up at the Newport Aquarium in northern Kentucky.

 

[Saltlick]

They really need to have a sand bed as deep as they are long, and the place they are likely to settle is the place where the current
is most likely to deliver food via current flow down at their level. If you want it to settle up front, you should set up a strong
counter-current with a powerhead on a rear corner of the tank facing forwards. PERHAPS you can pile up the sand at one end if
you do not have enough sand bed to accomodate the eel.

Impulse buy, eh?

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/dow ... rsion6.pdf

My advice would be to just leave it be where it wants to go and find a way to get food to it there.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Wow. I hope that this works out ok. I have about 3+ inches of sand. I also do not feed three times a day. This might be a challenge. He does get a few small pieces of mysis each night but competes with the tang, clown and wrassie.

 

[Saltlick]

3 inches might do it, I only inferred my reccos from another opinion I had heard elsewhere.
Naturally in the wild, the sandbed is alot deeper, lol. 3 inches might get it, although I WOULD pile up a softball sized section near the front of the tank and maybe it will select that spot. But I also agree that once you customize a spot, the fish will do what it has to do.

 

[Petsolutions]

Every display I've seen of garden eels has had at least 8 to 10 inches of sand. The one I saw at the Newport Aquarium probably had 10 to 15 inches of sand. They really need a deep send bed to be comfortable, and in my opinion 3 inches really isn't going to do the job. I would get some more sand in one are of the aquarium at least, if it were my own tank.

 

[Sea Turtle]

Just noticed yesturday that he moved to the front of the display where the sand is deeper. Seems to be happy in his new spot. Eating well also.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/downloads/pdf/version6.pdf

My advice would be to just leave it be where it wants to go and find a way to get food to it there.

Great article. On page 8, some text is garbled, at least in my display (Preview.app on OS X). Is it just me?

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/downloads/pdf/version6.pdf

My advice would be to just leave it be where it wants to go and find a way to get food to it there.

Great article. On page 8, some text is garbled, at least in my display (Preview.app on OS X). Is it just me?

Thanks, and no it's not just you (using Safari). The photo that obscures the text is the subject of that paragraph. IIRC it discusses how to create a gyre in the tank to prevent food from sinking and settling on the sand. Garden eels are quite like firefish and certain other zooplanktivores in their feeding preferences--once food hits the sand they are much more unlikely to try and eat it. So, you want to create a nice laminar flow that sweeps just above the sandy bottom to kick up food. The photo of the PVC pipe with the slit cut into it is how I did it, but there are all sorts of other ways to accomplish it.

 

[Anonymous]

I didn't even know what a garden eel was, so it was just idle curiosity.

 

[Anonymous]

They're surprisingly simple and straightforward to keep, assuming you set up a tank specifically for them and don't just toss them into a typical reef tank.

 

[Ben1]

When I dive in the BVI ther are a few sites that have a nice sandy area in between the reef areas filled with dozens of garden eels hanging just out side their holes. Always a cool site to see. Good luck with the new eel.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/downloads/pdf/version6.pdf

My advice would be to just leave it be where it wants to go and find a way to get food to it there.

Great article! 8) 8) 8)

I miss that magazine. We used to get it at the shop, not sure from whom, but I haven't seen it in a while. I need to look into that.

 

[Anonymous]

http://www.reefhobbyistmagazine.com/downloads/pdf/version6.pdf

My advice would be to just leave it be where it wants to go and find a way to get food to it there.

Great article! 8) 8) 8)

I miss that magazine. We used to get it at the shop, not sure from whom, but I haven't seen it in a while. I need to look into that.

Sea Dwelling Creatures
Reef Nutrition
Pacific Aqua farms
Aquatic Life
Exotic Reefs Imports
and I think they added Seagrest and A&M Aquatics to the list.

Any of those companies will ship them with orders to your store.

 

[Anonymous]

Excellent, thanks!