golden dwarf

[fiorano]

so i was at j and l yesterday. and a golden dwarf moray caught my eye. now i thought this guy was crazy and awesome and i asked them what it would eat if it were added to a livestock. they said only small gobies and the like. my smallest fish is just my clown fish so is this actually a fairly reef safe eel? and the other issue i hear alot about with eels is that they love to escape. so im curious to see if anyone else has an eel of this type ina reef tank and how they keep it from escaping.

[Delphinus]

There are a couple threads in here about this eel. Very cool eel BTW. I'll look for them and post them here, but in the meantime, here's a quick brain dump:

All eels are notorious for escaping their tanks. It's not a question of "if" they'll try at some point, it's a question of "when". I lost my first golden dwarf eel and it was a shocker because I thought I had the tank adequately covered. I was wrong. They are capable of climbing out at least 1/3 of their body length and capable of squeezing through small holes.

An eel is an eel so anything that can fit into their mouths is at risk. The nice thing about a golden dwarf is that they are tiny. I have one and I would say it cannot eat anything larger than 1/4" or 3/8" at this point. If he gets bigger that may change but for now that seems to be about the bite size.

I did see mine take a lunge at my sailfin tang but I think that was more of a personality skirmish than a "Oh wow dinner for a week" sort of thing. But it does go to show that maybe smaller fish could *eventually* be at risk if they start getting territorial.

[Delphinus]

Here are those 2 threads:

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=56786&

http://www.canreef.com/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=40798&

[fiorano]

awesome thanks for those posts. what do you think the chances are of him eating a porcelin crab? thats really the only invertebrate i have in there thats not jsut cuc. and is egg crate the best resource to cover a tank with while not affecting the lighting too much?

[Delphinus]

Hard to say about the porcelain crab.. For what it's worth though, mine has not shown any interest in the hermit crabs or the hitchhiker crabs in my tank. So it might be OK. This could change if he got hungry enough though! But so far mine has been a model citizen. I feed him everyday.

I was running eggcrate over my cube but .. as mine started to get more comfortable and start swimming out in the open more, it started to worry me. See the problem with eggcrate is I could see the eel fitting through those square holes no problem. And further to that problem is that the way eels move (and snakes for that matter), is if there is something to "push" sideways on, they can move through it faster. So I think eggcrate may actually help make it easier to get out. :neutral: I'm not 100% sure on this but that would be a concern.

I ended up replacing my eggcrate with a canopy "fence". The tank is still open-top and the front flips open so I can feed the tank and clean it and etc. but otherwise it's completely enclosed. After losing one from a tank that was almost 100% covered with cover glass (just some small openings for the power cords for the powerhead and the mounting bracket), I think a "fence" or "canopy" is a better option.

[fiorano]

the hood on my tank ncloses the entire top of the tank except the back portion for power cords overflow etc. maybe i could put egg crate to cover up the opening at the back. that would make walls all around the tank over 10 inches high. id say he would have an extremly hard time getting out then. and that also wouldn't restrict the lights at all. that could work i think :). haha i love planning new things to work on with the tank. one of my favorite parts of the hobby

[Delphinus]

That sounds good. :) One suggestion, if I may: use the eggcrate on the back as you suggest, but add either gutter guard or fibreglass window screening and attach it with zap straps.

[fiorano]

mhmm sounds perfect thanks for the idea haha