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Garden Eel Room - Stocking begins!


dingusplease

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Update 1/17: the Garden Eels themselves have been put on hold, until I can find a supplier willing to work with me on purchasing around 15 eels. Until then, enjoy pics of butterflyfish, wrasses, pygmy angels, and other fish perfect for a no-coral reef tank :)

 

Hello! In case you haven't seen one, this is a garden eel:

 

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I'm putting together a tank for some garden eels (they're amazing!), and I'm not sure if the sand I bought is too sharp. Just to introduce myself, my username on other forums is dingusplease, I did six years of fw tanks and two years with reef tanks. Here are the details of the setup. I have everything that's listed, and of course the basics.

 

- 120g long drilled. The dimensions are 60*26*18. It's basically a bigger 55.

- 55g sump

- PLS-300 Cadlights skimmer

- Return pump/overflow

- Steel reinforced wood stand.

- 1175w reef halide lamp

- 120w led panel (sump)

 

I had to overhaul a basement room to house this tank, since nowhere in the house was open enough, or could support the full weight of the tank. The room is nearly finished, and I'll upload pics once I get the waterproof floor trim installed.

 

The plan is to use museum grade plywood (waterproofed) to create a wall 2/3 down the length of the room, with viewing to the front glass panel, additional access doors to the space above the tank, and a hose gasket to run DI water in from a nearby sink. The back area will have access to the sump, tank, and lights. The tank will have a solid colored background painted on, so the eels don't get spooked from maintenance.

 

I'll be using a series of three pumps (still need to find a good brand) to create a gyre-like motion in the tank, to feed the eels. Since they need an 8-10" sandbed, the sand itself is a pretty big consideration.

I bought four 100lb bags of Uninim quartz sand . And that's my first question: I've scoured forums, and all I've found are people who say they heard some sands can be too sharp for burrowers/sandsifters. No solid evidence.

I looked at my stuff under a microscope, and I can upload a pic if anyone would find it useful. It doesn't look very sharp, but maybe there's some abrasive quality to it I'm missing with the microscope?

 

I'm also building sketchup files of the tank build + the room, which might help plan where things will go. I'll upload them when they're finished.

Thanks for reading!

 

P.S. here's a quick rundown on Garden Eels, since they're so interesting. :)

 

Garden Eels are indeed true eels, in the eel family Congridae. They naturally are found in huge groups, mimicking sea grass and swaying in the current. They live in deeper waters than some other reef-dwelling eels, at an average of 30 meters. The most common species you'll find if you google them is Heteroconger hassi, the spotted garden eel. They live mostly in the Indopacific Area, but can sometimes be found in the Caribbean, depending on the species you're looking for. Another very common species is Gorgasia preclara:

 

post-83918-0-41481800-1448471262_thumb.jpg

 

They live in nearly the same areas, but have yellow/orange bands, hence their common name "yellow-banded garden eel". There are many other species, and all make curvy burrows under the sand. There are even black garden eels!

 

post-83918-0-33812500-1448471284_thumb.jpg

 

Many people around the world celebrate garden eels, especially the Japanese, who have a garden eel day, garden eel festivals, toys, and even garden eels weddings!

 

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Unfortunately, because of decades of people misunderstanding, or failing to properly care for them, the number of garden eels in home aquaria has severely declined. My LFS owner now refuses to sell them, because of all the suffering for the eels associated with their collection, transport, and extremely high mortality rate in people's aquariums. They are not the most difficult eel to care for, it's just that they need very deep sandbeds (6 inches won't cut it.)

 

But with a group of healthy eels in a big enough tank (120 gallons), I'm hoping to show a long term success story with keeping them. Maybe even try to breed them!

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very cool. ill be following along. what do they eat?

Glad to have you along! They naturally eat all sorts of pods on the surrounding seagrass, but in aquariums people have had a lot of success with enriched mysis, flakes, pellets, and pretty much any fresh seafood that's cut up. I hear getting them to eat can be tricky though.

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This is very interesting and I have never heard of these little guys before. It is really neat that they mimic grass. How deep would the sand bed have to be for adults?

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This is very interesting and I have never heard of these little guys before. It is really neat that they mimic grass. How deep would the sand bed have to be for adults?

It's amazing! And each one has a personality. 10-12" seems like the best way to go, so you can vary the depth around the tank.

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How cute I would love those. Where do you get them? Don't worry Iam not going to try to get some, I still have a fresh tank still to put back up and nowhere near the funs. What a dream though. I've seen them on like discovery or animal planet. When the diver would go by they would shoot under sand and then slowly come back up and peak around for danger. Sweet thing!!

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How cute I would love those. Where do you get them? Don't worry Iam not going to try to get some, I still have a fresh tank still to put back up and nowhere near the funs. What a dream though. I've seen them on like discovery or animal planet. When the diver would go by they would shoot under sand and then slowly come back up and peak around for danger. Sweet thing!!

Had to contact a professional diver in the Indoapacific! He's going to ship me the eels through my lfs most likely. Unfortunately not many places will order them :( but hopefully that will change if people take really good care of them! I'm hoping others can see this build and learn from my experience, since I couldn't find any long term success stories myself.

 

Btw I saw them on one of those shows (forget which) too for the first time :)

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I'll be following. Not the build so much, but when u get the eels

That will definitely be the fun part :) and I hope to get them in the tank before winter break.

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Looks awesome, looking forward to seeing this built. Used to love watching the garden eels when diving. So cool to watch.

Thanks for looking! That's awesome -- you got to see them in the wild! Where were you diving?

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Update #2:

 

Sorry I kind of buried my question in the first post, but can anyone confirm that quartz sand is is or isn't actually dangerous for burrowing sw organisms?

 

I made a rather crude sketchup file of the room with the tank -- if anyone has any suggestions for tank placement I'd love to hear them.

***The file is at the below link. I used box, so if anyone takes a look please let me know if there are any problems.

 

https://uofi.box.com/thegardeneelroom

 

Here's a screen shot too:

 

post-83918-0-03182800-1448586441_thumb.png

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This sounds like a very cool idea. I'll be watching :).

Glad to have you along! I had no idea people were so into garden eels in japan until I saw this :D :

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Thanks for looking! That's awesome -- you got to see them in the wild! Where were you diving?

All over the place really, I worked as a dive instructor for 6 years, but best place for garden eels was off the south side of grand cayman. Lots of big open sandy patches for them

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All over the place really, I worked as a dive instructor for 6 years, but best place for garden eels was off the south side of grand cayman. Lots of big open sandy patches for them

Interesting. Hadn't heard about divers seeing them around the carribean/atlantic. I'd love to see them in big colonies like that.

Update #3:

 

Today is plumbing day. I set out to my local hardware store in search of 3" bulkheads, since the previous tank owner gave me his plumbing system, but no bulkhead. For some reason he chose 3" PVC.

 

I ended up deciding to switch everything to 1", since I don't want need so much flow in the sump, just to house equipment and grow chaeto. I'm gluing it all right now, and I'll post a pic of the finished plumbing.

 

I'm also doing a black acrylic overflow, but I'll have to wait til sunday to use a laser-cutter at the local fablab.

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amazing build! I visited the new england aquarium a while ago and the garden eels were my favorite display. Be sure to keep this updated.

Thanks for looking! I saw them first at the dallas aquarium -- so much fun to watch :). Here is...

 

Update #4:

 

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I applied the first coat of acrylic enamel to the back glass, and all of the plastic trim.

Anyone have thoughts on also painting the side with the overflow?

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How many do you think you'll get? Do you know the colors? Not that that matters, their faces are cute as hell!!! That would kick ass if you could breed them. Keep a log so you can share with fellow reefers ?

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Definitely will keep a log! Planning on purchasing a DA reefkeeper to log params too, and maybe to do auto water changes :lol: .

 

I'll start off with 3-4 eels, since they're pretty expensive at around $30-$40 per fish, depending on when you buy them. Two of each color at the beginning, since they coexist so well!

 

H. Hassi:

 

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G. Preclara:

 

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For my tank size and floor area, there should be room to comfortably house up to 17 eels :happy: maybe after a year.

 

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Advice for important decision needed: I bought some Quartz Sand at Home Depot a few weeks ago. Is it too sharp for garden eels?

 

I scoured the google for answers...

  • Silica/Quartz is NOT inherently dangerous in aquariums. They are considered insoluble. Same material as aquarium glass.
  • Ingestion seems to be the only documented dangerous aquarium situation involving quartz sand.

I pulled out my trusty red microscope

 

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...and examined the sand:

 

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Opinions?

 

If this sand isn't truly dangerous, I'd hope to find out so I don't have to buy $200 of aragonite sand :). I will do whatever I have to do to keep the eels safe, but if this sand can work I'll stick with it.

 

edit: tank-build photo dump incoming :happydance:

 

 

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