"Mean_Chlorine" wrote in message
...
Thusly Marco Schwarz Spake Unto All:

You make me think about keeping one of our European eels.

Having tried, I'd advice against that. They'll eat any other fish in
the tank which they suspect will fit in their mouth, they'll rearrange
anthing in the tank that's not physically bolted down (not kidding -
my 50cm eel pushed around rocks the size of footballs; every morning
the tank was completely rearranged), it's an escape artist, and yes,
it's nocturnal.

There's plenty of interesting european fishes to keep in aquaria, but
eel isn't really one of them. IME, IMO, YMMV etc.


Yes he is nocturnal, but he can be quite active during the day. He lives
with a Black Ghost knife fish (also nocturnal) and a Bristle Nose pleco. As
Mean_Chlorine pointed out, he does eat fish. I even tried Giant Danios (very
fast), but either the eel or the knife was getting them, I don't know which.
I don't know how long 50cm's is, but mine is 18+ inches long and the only
thing he pushes over is a broken clay pot. Both the eel and knife are fed
feeder guppies and ghost shrimp (sorry guppy keepers and shrimp lovers)
about 2 dozen of each weekly. This is one of my favorite tanks (ok, I'm
lying, I couldn't imagine not having any of my tanks), but it could not be a
community tank by any stretch of the imagination. As also pointed out, keep
a tight lid on it After everyone oohhs and aahhhs over my other tanks,
they usually end up watching the eel for some time.
Rick