Mastacembelus erythrotaenia (Fire Eel)

Hey guys,


I just got my Fire Eel last Friday, and I am totally stoked as it's the one fish I've been dreaming of owning since I first saw it!

Now, I've read numerous care sheets but all seem to tell different stories, so I'm throwing it out there to any of you who owned one at some stage:

- What is their growth rate on a normal diet?
- What constitutes a "normal diet"? If I can get it to eat pellets, will that be sufficient or is proteien absolutely crucial?
- Is there a specific time of day I should be feeding him?
- The rocks in my tank are somewhat coarse. Is it safe to leave them in, or will they scuff him?

I'll think of more questions as they pop up in my mind...

 

Well i cant help you with any but i have n question for you. Will it have tankmates and if, what?

 

He currently has my 3 Deacons for tankmates. Initially I was afraid that they might not get along too well, but they are really calm. He swims around the tank with them and they don't show any agression towards him. Nevertheless, they won't be tank mates for long. It's time for the Deacons to move on...

 

Hi Shibby. What are your plans for the Deacons?

 

They will soon appear under the classifieds as SELL or TRADE. I initially got them from @CharleyFXST as start out fish as they were already matured and hardy enough to withstand the initial phases of fluctuating water parameters when I started out in aquariums. I have however since then reached harmony and I am now ready to start going through my list of personal favourites, the fire eel being first in line. They are sadly not in it.

 

Iv'e wanted a spiny eel for soo long too. One day I'll get 1.

 

My obsession with the Fire Eel actually started when I first saw @CharleyFXST 's Tire Track (Mastacembelus armatus) and realised that it somehow resembled the Daschhund we've got at home, looking all excited to see you when you passed the tank and "sniffing" your hand when you stick it in the water. Since then I've been hooked, and when I saw the Fire derivative I knew that was what I had to get!

 

Okay, pls send me a pm when u do decide to let them go. Really dig them! Pity u dont tho!

 

It's not that I don't like them, they are awesome! But I can't have more than one tank at the moment, and my interests are of such a nature that the spread of fish I'm interested in might not gel too nicely with the Deacons. It's all about the bio load of the tank. The Deacons are of such a bio load that I am unable to add a bunch more fish to the tank without getting a bigger sump and perhaps a spraybar and / or air pump to ensure that the surface tension remains broken and additional oxygen is added to the water. The addition of the fire eel alone has a noticable impact on the water quality, and rectifying that would require an filtration alteration.

 

Hey

- They can grow quite fast, depending on what you make their 'normal diet'. There are a handful of people who have trained their eels to take pellets, and use this as a staple diet, and then use frozen foods as a treat every now and again. However, you will find that you'll get a brilliant growth rate out of them if you use a good variety of frozen foods in their diet, without even using dry foods. Go to the seafood section of your supermarket and grab some prawns, shrimps and mussel. Even the bait shop has some nice stuff, like sardine and squid. Not to mention of course any fish or invertebrate based frozen foods that you can buy at your LFS. Cut these to roughly the size of your eel's mouth, and feed an amount roughly equal or a little bigger than his head, once a day.

Couple a good, healthy, varied feeding regime with frequent water changes and good space, and if you're growing your eel from quite small, you will have a fish well over 30cm by the end of the year, minimum. Their growth, I've noticed, tends to slow down around 50cm.

- At first they can be shy and may prefer to feed at night, when it is darker. After time he'll get used to you, and you can feed him even in the middle of the day.

- It's preferable to have smoother rocks, like large pebbles etc. If you have stuff like lava rock, it may be wise to remove it. They do have scales which will protect them from minor scrapes, but these are tiny scales and don't offer too much protection.

Regards

 

Yaaay! Info! Thanks a lot!

I went to my girlfriend's grandparents' farm on Saturday and got some nice rocks from the hills which are currently soaking at home. I'll sterilise them tonight and take out the nasty ones that are currently in there.

 

@SHiBBY - sorry I missed this thread...What Tim said is good advice on feeding... My monsters main diet was shrimp,Tetra bits(not chopped up Neons...lol) and "sea food mix"... + bloodworm as a treat...

Got him as a 12 cm juvenile and 4 years later he was a fore arm thick 1 meter long monster that loved to be stroked and played with... Lived very happily in an oversized 5 foot for the 7 years I had him.... Came home one day to find him gone - found him dead under my bed later... There is a warning in this - they are excelent escape artists - close up the gaps mate and NEVER leave a gap...

 

Ah, that must have been awful! I feel that these eels display a personality unlike anything I've witnessed in other tropical fish. Not all fish will take food from your hand. Very little fish will remain calm with your arm in the tank. And no fish enjoys being petted. Yet these eels actually come towards your hand when you put it in the tank, and then if you didn't bring food, will still stick around to be played with.

Very odd indeed.

That being said, I imagine that one gets fairly attached to one of these, and losing him/her after 7 years is like losing a cat or dog.

I gave him some bloodworm last night which he gobbled up once I left (he's still very shy, so I hardly ever see him) so I'm happy for now!

BTW I'm going to Durban for the weekend. Going to visit my granddad in Toti...

 

Thanks Shawn for bringing that up - ALL eels have this knack for finding even the smallest escape route, so be careful.

@SHiBBY I had moray eels recenty... hand feeding was okay, but if you tried to pet them, they'd pet you back... with their teeth lol Be thankful that fire eels appreciate what you do for them :blink1:

 

Hahaha!

Be that as it may, I still want to get myself a Tile sometime... Despite their visual similarities, they are a completely different species and have a range of characteristics that are very interesting to me. I like the way they "flow" through the water, and coil into knots now and then.

 

...it seems that the fire eel is not eating properly... I NEVER see him eating... Bloodworms disappear but that could be any of the severums (and newly acquired bichir) as well! Could it be that he's just not into bloodworms? What's my next best bet?

Help!

 

Since I've added the air pump, my Fire Eel has been behaving very strangely...

Since I bought him, he has been hiding under a pile of rocks and only poked his nose out to take worms now and then... Now, he is swimming around freely the entire time!

That's not the weird part...

He jumps over my spray bar and them drapes himself over it like a piece of rope i.e. his head and tail are still in the water, but his middle is above the surface of the water. When I approach, he quickly jumps off and swims normally again, but then as soon as I leave he's back on the bar.

Is this normal?

 

Geez that is wierd.. can't answer your question...however I have three spiny eels and their resemblance to my dachsi is also something my boyfriend and I noticed! Awsome fish- saw a fire eel at our lfs however I was worried about the possible adult size of these monsters otherwise I def woulda given him a home..

 

He is my favorite inmate! He's really got some personality... I saw one on YouTube that grew up to around 45" (114 cm) in, what the owner claims, two years!

 

Jeez thats massive! How friendly are they with the other fish?What fish are u planning on keeping him with and what size tank does he need as an adult?