Peacock Eel care?

[phoenixkiller]

I decided it was a bad idea to keep a Fire Eel in a 55 gallon tank, so here I am, asking about Peacock eels. They're not as colorful, and they say they are very shy for a few months.

1. Decorations for the tank. I know they can easily abrade themselves on hard and sharp materials, so I wanna know what you use or what you think is best.

2. Eating habits. I here they are very, very picky eater, especially as juveniles. What do you feed them? It would be preferable if I didn't have to get a separate tank for live food.

3. Is a 55 a good size for a full adult?

4. I think a 55 is a great size, or so they say, so if that's true, how many eels could coexist in the tank? 3?

5. If I can comfortably fit 3 eels in there, are there any fish, preferably a larger, visible one, that can coexist with the eels?

6. What do you personally think about them? Please share your experiences with them!!

Thanks guys!

[steven p]

well.. a brief google-ing suggest they do better in pairs+ and that they do burrow, but sand is not absolutely necessary. 20 gallon tank for a single specimen, but if they're social... you should be able to keep a few + some live food or tank mates.. didnt read that far

i have a banjo that burrows in sand, might catch a cloud of dust or his tail poking out every now and then... if you allow them to do what comes natural and hide.. you'll likely end up with a happier/healthier fish... that you never get to see... got moonlights?

[Imi Statue]

My experiences with this fish are:

They require larger than normal tank(25-30 Gallons per fish is about right)
Tight fitting lid or they WILL escape.

I fed mine(and other "Eel" type fish) with black Tubifex worms that have been fresh water drip-rinsed for 24-48 hours before feeding to remove unwanted bacteria. The Tubifex are placed in a shallow 2-3"tall 4" wide glass dish that has some gravel in it about 1/4 full. The worms will stick out there heads reaching upwards and the eels would eat at leasure until the worms were gone.

When the Eels got larger I got them to eat small amounts of frozen foods like bloodworms that were thawed first in water then using a turkey baster placed into the dish with some live tubifex to coax the Eels into them. This seems to be a per fish basis so beware yours may not eat the same foods. They are just finicky and you'll have to try various things to get them to eat.

They get about 12-14" TL, and will go up against larger fish if they think they can "win" i.e. don't put anything into the tank that your particularly fond of and don't want eaten. Of course the fish must fit into the Eels mouth so...

Low light for the fish to feel secure and match up plants that can handle this.

Oh and they can get infections pretty easily so I would keep softwoods or round riverstones on black size 1 darker colored sandy bottom as the scape with plenty of softer live plants in groups, Mosses are great, and keep broad spectrum antibiotics handy for the occasional infection. (not sure why they are so susceptible)

[HybridHerp]

I got a question, how exactly would you plant a tank with this if the substrate is just sand? I'm assuming dirt with a sand cap would be a bad idea, and I could easily see this thing knocking out plants and root tabs.

Does seem like a cool fish though.

[Calmia22]

Originally Posted by HybridHerp

I got a question, how exactly would you plant a tank with this if the substrate is just sand? I'm assuming dirt with a sand cap would be a bad idea, and I could easily see this thing knocking out plants and root tabs.

Does seem like a cool fish though.

You really shouldn't have plants with any fish that burrows due to how often they will be dug up. My puffers tank isn't planted, and for good reason.


I use to have a peacock eel around driftwood. They seemed quite fine in that. Now if you do plan on planting the tank then get a good sized piece of tubing for them to hide out in. That should reduce the amount of burrowing. Oh, and they absolutely love live black worms. If you have a lfs that carries them near you then you just keep them in your fridge. It's also fun to net train eels. My brother had his fire eel trained. Whenever it saw the net full of worms it (and all the other fish in the tank) would run to the net and start picking them out of it. It's also a great way to control food waste.

[Imi Statue]

Originally Posted by HybridHerp

I got a question, how exactly would you plant a tank with this if the substrate is just sand? I'm assuming dirt with a sand cap would be a bad idea, and I could easily see this thing knocking out plants and root tabs.

Does seem like a cool fish though.

Eels are some of the coolest, if you ask me, especially the Fire eel at 20" is a total knock out! If you can pick one out of a group at LFS grab the ones with most red in them along the whole body if possible, it sticks with them throughout their life!

As for the dirt... well let's just say that the eels spend a lot of time burrowing with their noses so plantings should be kept in flowerpots with some soft mesh put over the top of the pot and attached with fishing line or pre-glued/dried with silicone before any planting is applied. You would silicone the four corners of a piece of mesh(remember "soft type" not aluminium for the fish rubbing against it) down the sides of the pot then cut 4 slices from center out to allow for the plant and pre-soaked dirt/sand to be put into it. Personally I would just skip those types of plants and instead use a lot of wood branches that have mosses attached and grown under lower light will work perfectly fine. Eels love to clamber around into the branches and they really can't hide for very long but yet feel safe...

No root tabs in anything but the pots and use regular liquid ferts. since the type of plants are pretty easily maintained.

Just be innovative about the keeping and you'll have a great time with an eel group, don't do anything special and your likely to get a surprise you don't want...

[fishkeeper01]

You could get anubias and java fern which can tolerate low lighting. Also both types of plants prefer to grow on woods or rocks instead of in the soil.

[Imi Statue]

Originally Posted by fishkeeper01

You could get anubias and java fern which can tolerate low lighting. Also both types of plants prefer to grow on woods or rocks instead of in the soil.

Only problem there is these Eels like to rub around on things and they can get scratched/infected quite easily so I stray away from any plant that stiff. Hence why I mentioned the "Softer" Planting scheme above.