# Fire Eel care?



## R.sok (Sep 24, 2012)

I've had one of these when I was younger. I'll tell you what I know or have done.
-Sand bed was about 3 inches deep
-If you add driftwood make sure the driftwood is under the sand & not above it
-I don't recommend rocks, anything that is hard & abrasive would surely damage the eels
-I feed him/her frozen blood worms (not freeze dried)
-My tank was open top & he never jumped...Not saying it would be the same for your eel. as long as you leave no openings or tiny spot I think you'll be fine
-Mine always swam around at night however during the day he will stick his head out of the substrate kind of just looking around


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## jstehman (Dec 13, 2010)

You can try making a hidey-tube out of PVC. I have one in my tank, and he's in there 50% of the time. The rest of the time he's under a river rock.

Be careful with your CO2 if you run it.. this is the first fish in my tank to let me know it's too much.

http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?235-Eels


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Know that it needs more than a 55 or life
I think 125 is the absolute minimum


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## Plant keeper (Jan 27, 2011)

HybridHerp said:


> Know that it needs more than a 55 or life
> I think 125 is the absolute minimum


 Nope they can get up to 40". A MFK member has a 30"and getting close to 40". They need the minimum of a 200gallon. I had 4 fire eels and all were great eels i just didn't have a 200 gallon for them. My 2nd one was 17" when i sold him to a MFK member and now he's 27" and in a 300gallon. 
I feed all of mine krill, earth worms, blood worms and frozen tilapia. i used PVC tubes and they do loove to hide in filters and loove to jump out. If you have any more Q about fire eels pm me. 


http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...62985-My-giant-fire-eel-is-a-confirmed-female!!!


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

Tight lid. Heard stories of them blowing the top of tanks clean off. compatability, anything thats not aggressive and isnt small enough to be eaten. 

Dont feed them everyday, and do not over feed bloodworms, they will cause intestinal problems, this goes for all fish. Frozen brine would be ok as a staple when its younger. Ghost shrimp for some live food snacks. My buddy fed his zigzag eel most of the time by putting pregnant platys in the tank. When they drop its a feast for a while as the eel picks them off, doesnt get much better than baby fish. You could probably keep a colony of feeder guppies just start it when the eel is young so they have a chance to establish, maybe a seperate tank full as well. Some cheap shrimp like cherries would be good as well. Earthworms are good but not all the time, but variety should be practiced with all fish. im sure you could buy goldfish and what not but if you raise most of your own food you can be sure its disease free. You dont want to raise a fish for years and years only to have it fall victim to bad food.

DO NOT BUY A FIRE EEL UNLESS YOU HAVE THE ROOM, TIME, AND RESOURCES. Its not cheap feeding a 4ft carnivore.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Plant keeper said:


> Nope they can get up to 40". A MFK member has a 30"and getting close to 40". They need the minimum of a 200gallon. I had 4 fire eels and all were great eels i just didn't have a 200 gallon for them. My 2nd one was 17" when i sold him to a MFK member and now he's 27" and in a 300gallon.
> I feed all of mine krill, earth worms, blood worms and frozen tilapia. i used PVC tubes and they do loove to hide in filters and loove to jump out. If you have any more Q about fire eels pm me.
> 
> 
> http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/f...62985-My-giant-fire-eel-is-a-confirmed-female!!!


Cool, thanks for correcting me on that. I wasn't 100% sure but I know for a fact that a 55 wouldn't have been enough.
Man, one day, I wanna get a tank that can house things like silver arowana, south american lungfish, fire eels, and other big fish, and then also keep it as a hi-tech planted tank.
It might be crazy, but it can totally be done. And would probably look cool as hell.
The things that I would do with an 800 gallon or so tank XD


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## 245Bettalover (Sep 13, 2012)

kwheeler91 said:


> Tight lid. Heard stories of them blowing the top of tanks clean off. compatability, anything thats not aggressive and isnt small enough to be eaten.
> 
> Dont feed them everyday, and do not over feed bloodworms, they will cause intestinal problems, this goes for all fish. Frozen brine would be ok as a staple when its younger. Ghost shrimp for some live food snacks. My buddy fed his zigzag eel most of the time by putting pregnant platys in the tank. When they drop its a feast for a while as the eel picks them off, doesnt get much better than baby fish. You could probably keep a colony of feeder guppies just start it when the eel is young so they have a chance to establish, maybe a seperate tank full as well. Some cheap shrimp like cherries would be good as well. Earthworms are good but not all the time, but variety should be practiced with all fish. im sure you could buy goldfish and what not but if you raise most of your own food you can be sure its disease free. You dont want to raise a fish for years and years only to have it fall victim to bad food.
> 
> DO NOT BUY A FIRE EEL UNLESS YOU HAVE THE ROOM, TIME, AND RESOURCES. Its not cheap feeding a 4ft carnivore.


don't feed the fire eel guppies cause if you want to keep a smaller fish with him they will be food. only feed as a treat and as well as ghost shrimp.


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

You think you can cancel out his genetic instincts as a predator by not feeding him guppies? lol. These guys only eat meat. Its not like raising angels or some cichlid with smaller fish so they dont eat them. Those fish will tank other foods. Eels dont have a choice.

I had a zigzag eel that would chase my serpae tetras around the tank just for the hell of it. it was as if he was saying, if i could only fit you in my mouth... I have that on video somewhere maybe i will post it if i can dig it up.


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## Plant keeper (Jan 27, 2011)

kwheeler91 said:


> You think you can cancel out his genetic instincts as a predator by not feeding him guppies? lol. These guys only eat meat. Its not like raising angels or some cichlid with smaller fish so they dont eat them. Those fish will tank other foods. Eels dont have a choice.
> 
> I had a zigzag eel that would chase my serpae tetras around the tank just for the hell of it. it was as if he was saying, if i could only fit you in my mouth... I have that on video somewhere maybe i will post it if i can dig it up.


 

I had a 17" fire eel in with guppies never touch them. And he never once had live food.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Plant keeper said:


> I had a 17" fire eel in with guppies never touch them. And he never once had live food.


Might not have touched them because they might have been too small.
You can keep absurdly small fish with much larger fish, because generally larger fish don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to catch something that isn't going to give them much energy.


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## bud29 (Sep 30, 2012)

HybridHerp said:


> Might not have touched them because they might have been too small.
> You can keep absurdly small fish with much larger fish, because generally larger fish don't want to deal with the hassle of trying to catch something that isn't going to give them much energy.


That is very true. For instance, some people keep neons with piranhas!


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

bud29 said:


> That is very true. For instance, some people keep neons with piranhas!


I've seen cardinals with Asian arrowana.


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## auban (Jun 23, 2012)

from my experience with fire eels, they will eat whatever retreats into the plants at night(given they can fit it in their mouths). my fire eels never came out during the day, and i would often leave my lights on for several days at a time...

whenever i turned my lights off, the neon tetras would hide in the plants. when i turned them back on, there were always about 3-4 less than there were the day before. if you are feeding them guppies, they may stay up near the surface. if the fire eel is too timid to venture up(mine was) it wont eat them. also, whenever the water got too cold (equipment failure, power outage, etc) they suffered. i eventually gave it away when i moved. it seems those things are more sensitive to temps and water quality than most fish, doubt it would have made the 3k mile trip in a car. 
then again, my florida natives made it...


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## mcaquatic (Apr 26, 2010)

they are awesome fish but as others mentioned unless you can upgrade realistically to a much bigger aquarium it won't be a good choice. There are other great spiny eels out there to choose from.


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## kwheeler91 (May 26, 2009)

Why not go for a zigzag eel? They only get like 8in in aquariums and are still cool as hell.


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## phoenixkiller (May 13, 2012)

kwheeler91 said:


> Why not go for a zigzag eel? They only get like 8in in aquariums and are still cool as hell.


I'm going for a Peacock Eel now, check out my thread:

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/showthread.php?t=201714&highlight=


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