Spiny Eel's

Housing for your Spiny eel:

Spiny eel's have adapted to a wide variety of water types from soft and acidic, to hard and alkaline. Water quality however is important as they are scaleless and subject to skin disorders. The tank should have already been cycled so there is no risk of burning the eel with ammonia or nitrite spikes, and nitrates should not be allowed to rise above 20 ppm.

The temperature of the tank should be kept at around 79 degree's. Too cool and your eel will bury itself in the substrate and look miserable, too warm and the eel will actively seek a way out of the tank. When comfortable a spiny eel will sit in its cave or protected area and calmly watch the world go by until feeding time. Warmer water speeds up the metabolism and shortens your eels lifespan.

Eel's need caves or overhangs to feel secure and will choose one from which they can observe the rest of the tank until feeding time. They also like allot of plant cover. If you don't provide a cave or overhang that your eel likes, it will burrow under your plants to create its own, so a comfortable cave is a must. If you use rocks in your eel's tank make sure to avoid anything rough like sandstone, it could rasp a hole in your eel's slime coat or worse, skin, and open the eel up to infection. Spiny eel's also like to bury themselves in the substrate so a small rounded gravel or sand should be used.

Eel Proofing your aquarium:

All eel's are escape artists and prone to exiting the tank in their explorations for food. An eel proofed tank is one with all openings covered with some type of screen or plastic covering. It is important to eel proof your filter as well, so that your eel doesn't get injured by the impeller or slip over the side of the filter and onto the floor.

I purchased plastic cross stitch screen from a craft store and, using aquarium safe silicone, glued it across the front of my filter and to the hood of my tank. Then I took some aquarium safe sponge and shoved that into any openings I couldn't cover with screen. The water from the filter flows through the screen and I am assured that none of my fish that are larger than guppy fry, will end up in the filter. (I lost a Yo-yo loach to an impeller this way once.)

Feeding your Spiny eel:

Spiny eels are said to eat a wide variety of foods. Pet stores might even tell you that they will eat flake food,I have seen horribly emaciated eel's in pet store tanks that claimed they were eating flake food. So I beg to differ, if the eel's were in fact eating the flake food they were not getting the proper nutrition or enough of it. A healthy eel has a rounded body, not narrow or wedge shaped.

Some of the foods that eel's will take are frozen or freeze dried bloodworms, black-worms, mealworms, bits of cocktail shrimp, fry and Ghost shrimp. I personally have found earthworms work best in keeping my eel's healthy, and they are by far, their favorite food of all.

At one time I have had to force feed a tiny eel to get it "back on its feet" so to speak. It was purchased for me as a gift and clearly emaciated when I received it. I called him Lucky, but he refused to eat the tiny bits of chopped earthworm that I gave him along with any other types of food that were offered. He was ready to die and after being in my tank for 3 days I found him laying against the back glass of the tank on his side. Believing that he was dead, I sadly grabbed the net to get him out of the tank and dispose of his body. Once in the net, he moved, so I scooped him out of the tank and grabbed a tiny eye dropper I had laying nearby. I very gently placed a freeze dried bloodworm deep in his throat and released him back into his tank. An hour later he was foraging through the gravel, actively hunting for something to eat. Surprised, I chopped up some worm for him and placed it near him with a Turkey baster. He ate until I had to quit feeding him for fear he would overload and bloat. From that moment on he would meet me at the front of the tank and wiggle around impatiently until I fed him.

If your eel refuses to eat for days and looks like it hadn't eaten for days before you bought it, you may have to resort to force feeding it. Don't worry, spiny eel's don't have teeth and don't bite. The hardest part about handling them is not dropping them because they are so slippery. Your best bet is to keep the eel in a net and gently place a finger on each side of its head to hold it still while slipping the eye dropper into it's mouth with the other hand. A gentle helper is good to have at this time, but not all family members or friends are enthusiastic about handling "slimy" eels.

Keeping worms for eel food:

Fill a medium sized Rubber-maid tub with plain potting soil,( no additives) and worm bedding from the sporting goods section in your local department store. Order 1,000 red wrigglers off of the internet and feed them vegetable scraps and corn meal. They will multiply and keep your eel's and other fish supplied with food and treats indefinitely. Earthworms are terrific for conditioning fish to spawn and some eel's will come to the surface to take the worm right from your fingers.

Tank Mates for Spiny eels:

I have my eel's in a community tank and they have had tank mates such as Guppies, Mollies, Kribensis, Bristlenose Plecs, Gibicep Plecostomus (Gibby) and Yo-yo loaches.

The most trouble I had was when my Gibby became territorial in the first tank I had him in. I added my adult Peacock eel to the tank and the Gibby followed her all over the tank, rasping on her slime coat. He even rooted around in the substrate when she buried herself until he could rasp some more. I had to remove her from that tank, but later when I purchased a 55 gallon tank I added both the Gibby and the eel's at the same time, and he hasn't bothered the eel's since.

One Trumpet (a member here at Fishinthe.net that owns several eels) wrote that he had trouble with a Zig Zag eel chasing his tiger barbs all over the tank. The eel never hurt the barb's, so it was more like a game than a hunt, but he did end up separating them. He also said that Otocinclus were out as tank mates as they get stuck in the eel's throat and choke them to death. While his eel's never attempted to eat guppies, puffers, or any others of a wide variety of small tank mates they did want to eat the Otto's.

I would not recommend putting small Kuhli loaches in with spiny eels. As much as my eel's love worms, I would be afraid a Kuhli would suffer a similar fate.

Some have kept eel's with Cichlids with no problems, as long as the eel has some good hiding places to retreat to. This depends allot on the type and size of the Cichlids. I would strongly advise against keeping a spiny eel in with a large Oscar or any other large Cichlid that is capable of hurting the eel.

Fire Eel's are known to eat small fish like guppies and neon's, but Fire eel's are considered the most aggressive of the commonly kept spiny eels. I've tried feeding guppy fry to my eel's as well as keeping the adult guppies with them and they wouldn't touch them. I'm sure it depends on the individuals to some extent, but I've found Peacock eels to be very passive and gentle with their tank mates.

The important thing is that the eel feels safe and comfortable in its tank. The more comfortable it feels the more you will see of it. It's hard to feed an eel that is buried under a foot of rock work so I suggest keeping your eel in either a species specific tank, or a tank with small fish that don't make the eel feel threatened.

Treating a sick eel:

When picking out an eel avoid any that have sores anywhere on their body. This is often a sign of septicemia, which newly imported eel's are prone to and it is hard to treat.

Eel's are scaleless and thus don't tolerate some of the most widely recommended medications used in the hobby.

If your eel develops red patches or sores near its fins, Maracyn and Maracyn ll are the antibiotic's of choice. It should be used in a well sealed hospital tank as it will kill your bacteria bed, and you don't want your eel getting out and dieing on the floor.

I have found that the best treatment for most external parasites and even disease is clean water mixed with a small dose of Aquarium salt. I maintain my tanks with at least 1 teaspoon of salt per 10 gallons of water.

I have cured, Ich, dropsy, velvet and small injuries. Using nothing more than a teaspoon of aquarium salt per 5 gallons of water and frequent water changes. Nothing beats clean water for helping your fish to fight off illness on its own.

Avoid using any medication with copper as an ingredient. Scaleless fish do not tolerate it and copper is hard to remove from your tank once you discontinue treatment.

Malachite green is another commonly used medication that should be avoided when treating scaleless fish.

Tropical Fish are fun!

Thanks for Visiting!

ADVERTISE ON FIT.N | VOTE FOR FITN ON AQUARANK | VISIT PLANTGEEK.NET

Thanks for Visiting!

Spiny Eel's

(by mak December 29, 2003)

Housing for your Spiny eel:

Eel Proofing your aquarium:

Feeding your Spiny eel:

Keeping worms for eel food:

Tank Mates for Spiny eels:

Treating a sick eel:

Links to more spiny eel information: