New Snowflake Eel "Parent"

[rhitee93]

Wow, the nitrates in the OT were at 110ppm this morning I did a 50% water change and will do another one next week. This little observation tank is only 10 gallons, and relies on a filter sock as the sole means of mechanical filtration, but that gives me some idea about what additional load this little guy will put on the DT.

 

[littlefoxx]

Wow, the nitrates in the OT were at 110ppm this morning I did a 50% water change and will do another one next week. This little observation tank is only 10 gallons, and relies on a filter sock as the sole means of mechanical filtration, but that gives me some idea about what additional load this little guy will put on the DT.

Yep eels will do that lol but they are awesome so it’s worth it!

 

[lion king]

Wow, the nitrates in the OT were at 110ppm this morning I did a 50% water change and will do another one next week. This little observation tank is only 10 gallons, and relies on a filter sock as the sole means of mechanical filtration, but that gives me some idea about what additional load this little guy will put on the DT.

Do you run a refugium on your dt, if not, it may be a fun, next addition.

 

[rhitee93]

Do you run a refugium on your dt, if not, it may be a fun, next addition.

I have a refugium setup, but have it throttled way down because I've had a problem with my nitrates bottoming out. Right now I've got just enough photo period to keep the chaeto alive. That may be changing soon

 

[joseph.timbs]

I think u’ve got urself a healthy eel, fun animal, mines favorite was actually just frozen squid, would take it from my fingers, good luck with him.. got a name yet?

 

[rhitee93]

Ok, today is one I don't want to repeat. I started to feed the eel today. After the first piece of shrimp it was in a frenzy and climbed out of the tank so fast I couldn't stop it. then I looked like someone juggling a fly ball trying to grab it mid air.

The OT it is in is sitting on a desk that is in a corner. Of course, the eel found its way between the wall and the desk. Did I mention the desk weighs 1000 lbs? It probably took me a good 10 minutes to get to it and put it back in the tank. Even after that I was playing eel wack-a-mole keeping it from climbing back out again while I fumbled with the lid.

It seems to be doing ok. It's moving around quite a bit, and looks normal, but I can tell it is stressed a bit, and favoring a more secluded hiding spot than normal. It ate one piece of shrimp since getting back in the tank. but has generally lost interest in eating today. I'll try again to feed it tomorrow.

 

[lion king]

Ok, today is one I don't want to repeat. I started to feed the eel today. After the first piece of shrimp it was in a frenzy and climbed out of the tank so fast I couldn't stop it. then I looked like someone juggling a fly ball trying to grab it mid air.

The OT it is in is sitting on a desk that is in a corner. Of course, the eel found its way between the wall and the desk. Did I mention the desk weighs 1000 lbs? It probably took me a good 10 minutes to get to it and put it back in the tank. Even after that I was playing eel wack-a-mole keeping it from climbing back out again while I fumbled with the lid.

It seems to be doing ok. It's moving around quite a bit, and looks normal, but I can tell it is stressed a bit, and favoring a more secluded hiding spot than normal. It ate one piece of shrimp since getting back in the tank. but has generally lost interest in eating today. I'll try again to feed it tomorrow.

I bet that got your adrenaline going, hahaha. He should be fine, I keep my super large eel net next to the tank just in case, I have a fang tooth.In a smaller tank this is definitely a possibility, at least you were dealing with a pebbletooth and not a fangtooth. Even in my 210g my tessa almost comes flying out from time to time.

 

[rhitee93]

... at least you were dealing with a pebbletooth and not a fangtooth.

Yeah, that exact thought went through my mind as I grabbed it. I figured I was about to find out what it felt like to get bit.

My LFS has a big tessellated as a display animal. Not sure how long it is since I've never seen it stretched out, but it would take two hands to get all the way around it's girth. I saw they had moved it temporarily to a smaller tank for some maintenance work the other day. My little adventure today made me wonder how you move an animal like that.

 

[rhitee93]

Eel-proofing the overflow:

My DT has been running for about 4 month now, but I have been lax about covering the half of the tank that has the overflow. I had the internal overflow box on my tank shifted to the right half so that it is centered between the center brace and the right wall of the tank. I have since routed all the cables over the weir and out the top of that side of the tank.

I've been thinking about how to cover this effectively for a few weeks now, and this is what I came up with. Somewhat ironically, this is waht I was working on in the office yesterday when I had the carpet surfing incident.

I used some scrap polycarbonate I had to create a cap with wall that will fit just inside the weir for the overflow:

This will sit between the bracing of the tank allowing me to use a simple rectangular screen to tightly seal off the rest of the opening:

My return line loc-line and all the tank cables run through wide spots in the weir where the arches are in my cover. I think I am going to put a piece of mesh over my emergency overflow pipe as well. Even if the eel manages to get into the overflow, the only way out would be the emergency pipe. That would be bad though since the sump would be an easy place to escape.

I'm planning to 3D print some hold-downs that I can silicone to the bracing on either side of this cap to keep it from getting bumped out of position.

 

[lion king]

Eel-proofing the overflow:

My DT has been running for about 4 month now, but I have been lax about covering the half of the tank that has the overflow. I had the internal overflow box on my tank shifted to the right half so that it is centered between the center brace and the right wall of the tank. I have since routed all the cables over the weir and out the top of that side of the tank.

I've been thinking about how to cover this effectively for a few weeks now, and this is what I came up with. Somewhat ironically, this is waht I was working on in the office yesterday when I had the carpet surfing incident.

I used some scrap polycarbonate I had to create a cap with wall that will fit just inside the weir for the overflow:

This will sit between the bracing of the tank allowing me to use a simple rectangular screen to tightly seal off the rest of the opening:

My return line loc-line and all the tank cables run through wide spots in the weir where the arches are in my cover. I think I am going to put a piece of mesh over my emergency overflow pipe as well. Even if the eel manages to get into the overflow, the only way out would be the emergency pipe. That would be bad though since the sump would be an easy place to escape.

I'm planning to 3D print some hold-downs that I can silicone to the bracing on either side of this cap to keep it from getting bumped out of position.

You do want that gap covered all the way down to the tabs, they will squeeze into something you would not think and end up in the sump. Once in the sump if not into a covered area, they will end up on the floor. In the last pic it looks like you did, photo is playing tricks with me. You can place a small weight on top of that section to give you easy access to the overflow, for cleaning, not only algae but to open up the venting from salt deposit.

 

[rhitee93]

Yes, the cover extends down far enough that the walls overlap the top of the weir by about 1/4". The openings around the pipes and wires are not as tight as I would like. I may need to fill those in a bit until the eel is bigger.

 

[rhitee93]

Well, the eel doesn't seem any worse for having gone on a walk-about behind my desk the other day. I fed it again today and decided to dose General Cure just in case there are any internal parasites. There are no signs of anything, but While I've got it captive in the the OT, I figured I may as well.

I've already done two rounds of PraziPro, so I'm just using the GC for the Metronidazole. I'm thinking in this case I should actually follow the directions and dose again in 48 hours? In the past when I've used GC, I have been coached to wait 8 days for the 2nd dose, but that was because we were focusing more on the Praziquantel for flukes.

If all goes well, I'm thinking this 'Guy' will go into the display tank on Sunday.

 

[rhitee93]

One last little bit of eel proofing. The eel should not be able to make it into the overflow, but just in case it does I put a screen over the emergency drain pipe. There is no other way out, so in the off chance is squeezes in someonhow, it will be contained there.

This is just a 3D printed ring that is a press fit over the pipe with just enough space for a piece of 1/4" screen top netting.

One other thing I have learned is to feed the eel smaller pieces. I was cutting food up into longish strips with about a 1/4" cross section. Some of the strips would be an inch or more long. The eel would grab these and pull it down its gullet easy enough, but I was finding bits of regurgitated food a little while later. That seems to have stopped when I started cutting the strips much shorter. (Maybe 3/8" to 1/2" long)

 

[rhitee93]

The eel is in its permanent home now. I was a little worried about netting it out of the OT, but that turned out to be easy. It only took about 20 minutes for it to find the pipe I had buried under the sand in the event I ever got an eel. Seems to just be chillin' out for now.

 

[rhitee93]

It's been a week, and the eel seems to be doing well. The only thing I'm uncertain about at this time is how frequently it wants to eat. It seems to get really hungry after about 2 days and seems pretty agitated by day 3.

I don't know how old the eel is, but it's a little over 12" long, and maybe 3/4" in diameter at the widest part.

My understanding it that it is ok to feed them more frequently when they are younger, but that should taper off to once or twice a week when they mature. @lion king Am I at risk of overfeeding if I feed every 2 or 3 days?

Right now I am feeding mostly shrimp and scallops from the fish counter with some skin-on salmon every 3rd feeding or so. In a single sitting the eel can consume an entire 41-50 sized shrimp, and around 3 or 4 quarter-inch cubes of scallop before it loses interest in feeding.

 

[jda]

I suggest that you go an asian food market and get it food that contains the whole animal. Just the meaty/cutlet parts are not nutritious enough. Whole squid, cuttlefish, whole shrimp (even if you have to cut them up), octopus, etc. Often, these places will have live crabs that you can drop in there too.

I always fed mine when they were hungry. They seem to know. My snowflakes never went on months-long fasts like my Zebras did - it can happen, though.

 

[littlefoxx]

It's been a week, and the eel seems to be doing well. The only thing I'm uncertain about at this time is how frequently it wants to eat. It seems to get really hungry after about 2 days and seems pretty agitated by day 3.

I don't know how old the eel is, but it's a little over 12" long, and maybe 3/4" in diameter at the widest part.

My understanding it that it is ok to feed them more frequently when they are younger, but that should taper off to once or twice a week when they mature. @lion king Am I at risk of overfeeding if I feed every 2 or 3 days?

Right now I am feeding mostly shrimp and scallops from the fish counter with some skin-on salmon every 3rd feeding or so. In a single sitting the eel can consume an entire 41-50 sized shrimp, and around 3 or 4 quarter-inch cubes of scallop before it loses interest in feeding.

My eels did the same, hungry every 2-3 days. Then they started to not want food that often. Now I let them tell me when they are hungry!

 

[rhitee93]

The snowflake was roaming around looking for a meal this afternoon and I was reflecting on how chunky it has gotten. That reminded me of this thread, so I thought I'd do an update.

Here is a short video clip if you have bandwidth to spare: