Sharptail Eel

[Fishfreak2009]

Anyone ever kept one of these in a mixed reef? Considering picking one up after reading about their diet and snorkeling with 2 of them today. My mixed reef has no echinoderms or ornamental shrimps/crabs; just some hermits and snails.

They are gorgeous animals.

 

[lion king]

They are not commonly offered but I guess if you had a 6' tank and no small fish they would be fine.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

They are not commonly offered but I guess if you had a 6' tank and no small fish they would be fine.

Current plan is to wait until we set up a 180 gallon. Would look great with some butterflies, a regal angel, a moorish idol, and some dwarf angels. Add a pair of skunk clowns and a few of the larger wrasses.

 

[lion king]

Many times fish that seem not to be kept very regularly in captive, likely don't live long, and most times that is due to feeding. I would plan on an observation tank and in all likelihood, you would probably need to start out with live food.

 

[Fishfreak2009]

Many times fish that seem not to be kept very regularly in captive, likely don't live long, and most times that is due to feeding. I would plan on an observation tank and in all likelihood, you would probably need to start out with live food.

I figured as much. It seems like the majority of their diet in the wild is Echinoderms, at least from what I can find online. It would also match what I saw snorkeling today. One of them ate half of a serpent star before the other half managed to get away

 

[lion king]

While it's great if you can offer their native diet, it mostly comes down to it being live. So there are options at the lfs, they do also feed on small fish and crustaceans. So offering ghost shrimp, fiddler crabs, guppies, and mollies will always be an option. But it sounds like you will be able to go shopping for them, it would easy to set up an temporary auxiliary feeding tank. Given time most eels will come around to dead feeding, with the exception of the ribbon eel, so hopefully not that difficult.