Snowflake Eel eating everything

[Marlos]

My snowflake eel is eating everyone's food, and not sure if he is going to be a problem. We have a yellow tang, maroon clownfish and 2 damsels. He destroys any piece of seaweed I put in there for the tang. It does have garlic on it so I don't know if that's why, but they had ich so I'm still medicating them. I'm feeding him a couple of shrimp/silverslides a couple of times a week. My nitrate went pretty high when I was feeding him more and my LFS told me to ease up for a bit until we got it back to normal. BUT even when I feed him a lot he still goes after the seaweed.

I have also found the tang and maroon with slits in their fins a couple of times and he does go after them during feeding time (although when I've seen it he doesn't seem to really bite down). Not sure if it's him or not. Anything I can do to keep the peace with Mr. Eel?

 

[nautical_nathaniel]

Sorry to say, but this is sort of what happens any time you mix a predator, especially an eel, with more peaceful style fish. The eel is an opportunistic feeder and anything and everything that smells like food that fits in its mouth is fair game.

 

[FloodWaters]

The real issue is your eel eating their food today, but he will be eating them before you know it. Putting an eel in that scenario is a recipe for some poor fish to end up on the back of a milk carton.

 

[jda]

They need to eat a lot. Even though the pebble-toothed eels are pretty non-agressive and mostly eat crustaceans, they can get quite aggressive when they are underfed. Your LFS is wrong - they need to eat every day and probably more than once a day.

Most people do not understand the pebble-toothed eels, but this article is right on the money:
http://reefkeeping.com/issues/2002-12/fm/index.php

 

[jda]

Additionally, find a asian seafood market near you. You can get all kinds of squid, cuttlefish heads, octopus, etc. for cheap... just make sure that it is raw. Whole shrimp, prawn, krill with the shells and body are especially welcome.