A golden dwarf eel is perfect I have one in my tank and love him. They stay small and are reef safe. He does stick to his cave are and tends to lurk outside his cave as you would see in the ocean and as stated above. He becomes more active as he gets hungry you'll notice it and you'll know it's time to feed. I wouldn't recommend hand feeding unless your going to wear a glove as eels have terrible eye sight and will mistake your finger/hand and bite you. Not on purpose or course. Here's a picture of mine when I picked him up. He loves clam and silver sides.