Banded Snake Eel help

[Slocke]

So I've put in the PVC pipe cave for him and he's explored it a bit. However I also saw him trying to dig and seeming to fail to get into the sand. I use Aragonite special grade by Carib Sea. It's a fairly large grain which I would think should be easy to burrow into.

I believe he is eating the live ghost shrimp just because they disappear overnight but he isn't eating the bits of salmon and shrimp I've added yet.

 

[SlugSnorter]

I want to get a banded snake eel. The issue is I'm finding care guides and proper feeding hard to find and contradictory. The only care guide article I could find says they are scavengers and should be fed dead/frozen krill, silversides and bits of shrimp (https://animal-world.com/encyclo/marine/eels/banded.php). However my LFS says they only eat live foods.

Does anyone have some experience that could help?

Also as a sand dwelling eel will it get along with a sand dwelling wrasse and sand dwelling CUC?

they need a passive tank, and are shy. Among what others are saying make sure its not getting bothered by tankmates.

 

[Slocke]

they need a passive tank, and are shy. Among what others are saying make sure its not getting bothered by tankmates.

It lives alone unless you count his food and a bunch of snails. I was going to add a problem wrasse but I think you're right. If it does get any tank mates they'll have to be very laidback, peaceful fish.

 

[lion king]

Just be careful about dead food, you don't want to drop it in the tank and let him find it on his on. This is a good way to polute the tank, over time you want to target feed him dead chunks of food. 1st try a feeding stick, slight bend at the end so as no to come straight on, and pierce an appropriately sized chunk. You want to start with a piece no wider than the width of his eyes and 2 to 3 times tge length of the width. A rigid airline you get at the lfs can be fashioned into a feeding stick.

 

[Slocke]

Just be careful about dead food, you don't want to drop it in the tank and let him find it on his on. This is a good way to polute the tank, over time you want to target feed him dead chunks of food. 1st try a feeding stick, slight bend at the end so as no to come straight on, and pierce an appropriately sized chunk. You want to start with a piece no wider than the width of his eyes and 2 to 3 times tge length of the width. A rigid airline you get at the lfs can be fashioned into a feeding stick.

I was trying to target feed but he showed no interest so I left the chunks in the open overnight as that's when he's active but removed the uneaten food in the morning. They may have been too big based on what you were saying though.

 

[lion king]

Wow when I see him in context of the whole tank, he is smaller than I thought.

Most people feed their eels way too big of food items. You hear "eels are messy". this is one reason. Even though eels can get down larger items, a new addition can also be timid and benefit from smaller items. The larger pieces get shaken around and even regurgitated out of the view of the hobbyist, this adds to dirtying up the tank. From what I understand this snake eel does have blunt teeth similar to a pebbletooth moray, so imagine swallow size. Feeding a few targeted smaller items will keep your tank much cleaner than using larger pieces or allowing him to scavenge on his own. The clear rigid airline as a feeding stick is a less intimidating tool to start, eventually you can try hemostats or tongs. It will take some teasing and he will have to be hungry, so don't expect success on the 1st try. I would feed him some live ghost shrimp every other day for the 1st week, then wait until he starts cruising, hunting for food. Then no more than twice a week, then to once a week; as long as he is thick and growing you will be feeding enough. Be reminded I am using mostly information from pebbletooth eels, as I have only seen this eel a couple of times, and I don't have info on long term success. Figure as long as their habits are sedentary, their metabolism would resemble other eels and feeding too frequently could be a problem.

 

[Slocke]

Yes, it has the same approximate proportions as a ribbon eel. Got it to bite a piece of food but I think it was too big and it became disinterested after that. Not worried yet though as I'm confident it ate at least some of the ghost shrimp.

 

[Chrisv.]

Yes, it has the same approximate proportions as a ribbon eel. Got it to bite a piece of food but I think it was too big and it became disinterested after that. Not worried yet though as I'm confident it ate at least some of the ghost shrimp.

Honestly, after such a rough introduction, I’d be inclined to give it the live food it’s for sure willing to eat and try to stay out of the tank for about a month. Let it get super settled in and then worry about a more convenient food item.

edit: so glad to see that it’s doing better!

 

[Slocke]

Honestly, after such a rough introduction, I’d be inclined to give it the live food it’s for sure willing to eat and try to stay out of the tank for about a month. Let it get super settled in and then worry about a more convenient food item.

edit: so glad to see that it’s doing better!

True. It is a scavenger I believe from my research and does not seem at all interested in target feeding yet. The one article I could find on this specific eel suggested setting up a feeding spot and placing food there in the evening and removing anything uneaten in the morning. This somewhat worked last night I think as one of two bits of food disappeared last night.
I do hope to be able to target feed it eventually though for the reasons LION King stated. It has shown absolutely no fear of me which should make that easier. I don't know whether that's because its sat in a busy LFS for months or because it has nothing to fear in the wild as a sea snake mimic (who are famously incredibly venomous and similarly fearless).

 

[Slocke]

Looking into its taxonomy it only shares an order with moray eels. Its more closely related to garden eels than anything else I've seen in the hobby.

 

[lion king]

I've heard the scavenger thing also but the examples I've seen did eat live ghost shrimp and eventually were target fed. Target feeding will take time and in the mean time if you think leaving food in a feeding spot is advantageous, then I would do it. Eventually that spot would be where he will accept target feeding, even if not from a stick and you drop it in. Just give 2-3 days between feedings, he'll signal you when he gets hungry by becoming more active. It's alot harder when so few have been successfully kept, this usually falls into 2 caregories: feeding issues or disease prone. He's proven to be tough and I wouldn't say disease prone. So it's feeding difficulties, or maybe just method. If you use a combo of live and the feeding spot you will figure it out eventually. His activity will dictate the frequency of feeding as well.

 

[Chrisv.]

Excited to see how this goes long term. They are a beautiful fish.

 

[Slocke]

Excited to see how this goes long term. They are a beautiful fish.

Well I think I just crossed a major hurdle! I don't like feeding Krill based on what I've read from your stuff Lion but hopefully now I've got it eating I can get it eating human grade foods.

 

[lion king]

Excellent, did you read my thread on human grade krill.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/human-grade-krill.912978/

I'm so jealous, that seems like such an awesome creature. Once you really get him settled in, you'll have to do a write up.

 

[Slocke]

Excellent, did you read my thread on human grade krill.
https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/human-grade-krill.912978/

I'm so jealous, that seems like such an awesome creature. Once you really get him settled in, you'll have to do a write up.

I did yes. Your threads really fill a needed niche on here.
And thanks my LFS sells quite the assortment of fish (had a few crocodile fish today) guess I got lucky.

 

[Chrisv.]

I did yes. Your threads really fill a needed niche on here.
And thanks my LFS sells quite the assortment of fish (had a few crocodile fish today) guess I got lucky.

Echoing the request for a write up with long term care notes, or perhaps an ongoing thread!

 

[lion king]

I always say "start your research in the wild", this scavenger thing really wasn't really playing for me. There are not many scavengers outside of inverts in the wild. I think I must have read on a hobby site. Hobby sites are good for tank maintenance and such, but caring for rarer species most of what you will find will be anecdotal. One case and many times not with long term success. There used to be a "train your lion" train of thought as it were, the problem was they never lived that long on the prescribed method and diet. I'm a hobbyist and many consider my info anecdotal, but I have complied research over 30 years and 100s of cases. This eel I have only seen twice and we treated them like a pebble tooth eel, I can't answer to their longevity in captivity. Here's just one source of wild info that is more reliable than a hobby site. I thought not only did they eat crustaceans, but also did eat small fish.

Myrichthys colubrinus summary page

www.fishbase.se

 

[Slocke]

I always say "start your research in the wild", this scavenger thing really wasn't really playing for me. There are not many scavengers outside of inverts in the wild. I think I must have read on a hobby site. Hobby sites are good for tank maintenance and such, but caring for rarer species most of what you will find will be anecdotal. One case and many times not with long term success. There used to be a "train your lion" train of thought as it were, the problem was they never lived that long on the prescribed method and diet. I'm a hobbyist and many consider my info anecdotal, but I have complied research over 30 years and 100s of cases. This eel I have only seen twice and we treated them like a pebble tooth eel, I can't answer to their longevity in captivity. Here's just one source of wild info that is more reliable than a hobby site. I thought not only did they eat crustaceans, but also did eat small fish.

Myrichthys colubrinus summary page

www.fishbase.se

It has been far more interested in food that was fresh than food that had been left in the tank overnight which suggests to me the scavenger thing is nonsense as a true scavenger wouldn't care about that while a hunter with a more sensitive gut would. It is far more active in the night than in the day and I'm wondering if its daytime activity is a sign of hunger and desperation hunting. (While working with a group that protected pangolins we had a worse than usual dry season and observed strictly nocturnal insectivores, aardvarks, aardwolves and pangolins, out in the daytime which is very rarely seen but had become very commonplace that season.)
I'm also starting to doubt what I've read about tank requirements as when it is active it is a very strong swimmer and I think would prefer more space to swim.
Finally substrate; I'm wondering if there's a better substrate for them as mine has failed to dig into it. It will gets its a head a little ways in but can't seem to get through the sand affectively.

 

[Chrisv.]

It has been far more interested in food that was fresh than food that had been left in the tank overnight which suggests to me the scavenger thing is nonsense as a true scavenger wouldn't care about that while a hunter with a more sensitive gut would. It is far more active in the night than in the day and I'm wondering if its daytime activity is a sign of hunger and desperation hunting. (While working with a group that protected pangolins we had a worse than usual dry season and observed strictly nocturnal insectivores, aardvarks, aardwolves and pangolins, out in the daytime which is very rarely seen but had become very commonplace that season.)
I'm also starting to doubt what I've read about tank requirements as when it is active it is a very strong swimmer and I think would prefer more space to swim.
Finally substrate; I'm wondering if there's a better substrate for them as mine has failed to dig into it. It will gets its a head a little ways in but can't seem to get through the sand affectively.

There is lots of documentation that says these guys, unlike other snake eels, have adapted to daytime hunting due to the protection they get from batesian mimicry. There are while bunch of videos online that show daytime hunting in the wild that support this.

I do think that softer substrate is nessecary.

As for space, they seem to forage across the reef bottom, so perhaps a bigger surface area is in order?

 

[Slocke]

There is lots of documentation that says these guys, unlike other snake eels, have adapted to daytime hunting due to the protection they get from batesian mimicry. There are while bunch of videos online that show daytime hunting in the wild that support this.

I do think that softer substrate is nessecary.

As for space, they seem to forage across the reef bottom, so perhaps a bigger surface area is in order?

It was active a couple hours yesterday up until I fed it. (I was trying to feed it sooner but Petsmart decided to take forever to tell me I couldn't have their ghost shrimp because "they need a couple days to acclimate to our tanks before we can see them".) But so far its schedule during the day is a few hours of nothing followed by 5-10 minutes of swimming/foraging on the sand, repeat. But at night it is very active.

I'm looking at a bigger tank but I do have weight and money restrictions but I'm hoping to get something within a couple months. I'm looking at a 90 gallon right now or a larger acrylic. That would be when I'd look more into substrate too. I'm thinking I look at garden eel care guides for substrate suggestions?

I'm also thinking about tank mates once I upgrade. My LFS kept it with several other eels, ribbons, snowflakes, and another BSE, and never had any problems. He suggested a zebra eel as being the best eel due to its lack of aggression. His other suggestions was one of the more peaceful pufferfish.