Snowflake eel with twitchy headmovements

[kylexarbor]

So I got a snowflake eel 2 days ago from petco. It’s about 8” long. I acclimated it 30 minutes in the bag and about 45 minutes drip. He (Eel deGRASSE Tyson) has been making these very jerky twitching motions with his head quite often. I know they can do this to smell around but it looks involuntary and spastic. I’ve tried feeding him thawed krill and silversides. Always interested but has only taken food twice but doesn’t actually eat it. There are plenty of hiding places and nothing to really bother him. 

 

I have a biocube 29 (I know this will be too small for him but he will be moving to a much bigger tank down the road)

 

SG: 1.025

pH: 8.4

Ammonia: 0

Nitrite: 0

Nitrate: <10

kH: 9

Temp: 80 F

 

1st chamber: heater and UV sterilizer

 

2nd chamber: diy media basket

 

floss

chemi pure

bottom compartment I have Chaeto with an led on the back glass.

 

hydor slim skim nano also in second chamber 

 

3rd chamber:

 

return pump

temp probe

 

tankmates are:

 

coral banded shrimp

5 red legged hermit crabs

1 turbo snail 

 

Xenia

frogspawn

gsp

goniopora

xoanthid 

kenya tree coral

 

The tank is 5 months old and the mods and upgrades have been added throughout this time.

 

let me know if I left anything out. 

 

Thanks in advance. 

 

[BlennyBoi]

a 29g is too small, even at his current size. otherwise, i dont know why he could be doing this.

[kylexarbor]

1 hour ago, BlennyBoi said:

a 29g is too small, even at his current size. otherwise, i dont know why he could be doing this.

I completely disagree. 8” of a very slender fish that barely moves in a 29 gallon ( likely low 20s after rock) is plenty big enough in my opinion. I’ll start worrying about tank size when it hits closer to 15”.

[BlennyBoi]

oh ok. ive never kept eels so i dont really know.

[kylexarbor]

53 minutes ago, BlennyBoi said:

oh ok. ive never kept eels so i dont really know.

I don’t completely agree with the inches of fish per gallon ratio. There are far too many variables. It all depends on how active the fish is, how often they eat/produce waste, etc. An 8” thin inactive eel that eats once every 2-3 days is going to have far less impacts than say 8 1” clownfish.