# Striped Peacock Eel experiences



## NigelSt (Sep 24, 2011)

Hey all,

I'm new to these forums as well as keeping an aquarium, but anyways I wanted to make this thread because I recently bought a new striped peacock eel (macrognathus aral) and would like to get some more information based on experience as well as express my current concerns.

I bought 2 striped peacock eels so far at the pet shop. The first one died after ~2 weeks, he was also still very small/thin and kind of sporadically started swimming unbalanced and died the day after. There were no signs of illness or anything, so either he was simply weak from the store, died from stress or perhaps a combination. I did have a hyper active orange algae eater (afaik a siamese algae eater), which caused a lot of stress among some fish and would spook the eel.

So a couple of days later, after testing my water, I bought another striped peacock eel, which I've had for about 3 days now. This one's a lot fatter and larger (about 12cm). He also eats live bloodworms, so I'm not even concerned about him getting fed properly. 

What I am kind of worried about is how active this guy is. He swims *alot*. I almost always see him (doesn't really hide) and he keeps on swimming up and down, left to right...zealously scanning the sand for food.

I was even thinking they might be feeding them Dextro Energy tablets at the store, but there he was just lying still underneath a piece of wood like you would expect these fish to.

Is this kind of behaviour worrysome? My previous eel didn't swim as much and he liked hiding in the dark spots or plants, and it took him about 2 hrs before he started swimming/exploring after I released him into the tank. This guy I have now swims non-stop (as far as I've seen) from the moment I let him loose. In broad daylight as well. Would like to get some feedback on this!
I really do like him being visible so much (they're awesome creatures) but I wouldn't want another one dying on me from stressing out or whatever.

Another point is how easily he can manage to sneak behind my wall. There's maybe 1 cm space between the left and right edges of the wall, filled up with netting. I even added a ton of additional netting because some fish were able to sneak behind it, but now _only _the eel can do this, without any trouble (he is so curious and just pokes his nose into the net till he can punch his way through). I was worried he would get stuck there but he gets out as easily as he pierces my net defenses. I was thinking of buying a large filter sponge mat to fill up the gap properly, but I'm not sure. Any tips?

*My tank*
- It's a 225~ litres tank (about 55 gallons I think), size 100x50x40 cm (not entirely sure about width and height but it's definitely not far from it)
- Has sand substrate with lots of hiding places (cave, wood, plants) since it's a new setup and I really really wanted to have an eel.

*Fish:* 
(please excuse me for not knowing all the scientific names and maybe misspelling the english names because I'm Dutch and their common names are different)
1x striped peacock eel
4x rainbow salmon
5x glass catfish
2x moonfish 
2x aphistogrammes ramirezi blue electric
5x harlequin rasbora (Trigonostigma heteromorpha)
5x Danio rerio (zebra striped)
7x platy

Basically the eel is the only bottom feeder and the other fish are all peaceful school fish with 2 pairs (the blues and moons).

On a sidenote, how would you rate my fish composition and could I possibly add a few more or should I leave it with this?

Thanks a lot, help is appreciated!


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## JenlovesFish (Apr 29, 2011)

The eel is fine i had a 5" fire eel once he was all way swimming and looking for food.. have u try earthworms... Mine 13" fire eel i had last year loooove them..


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Every fish has it's own personality. I think you just found one that has a unique and fun personality. Enjoy it. If it starts to show signs of stress, then worry.

I'm not sure what you mean by 'getting behind the wall'. Wall of what? Is there something between the back glass of the tank and the rest of the tank? (Sorry, I'm a bit confused there.)


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## NigelSt (Sep 24, 2011)

holly12 said:


> Every fish has it's own personality. I think you just found one that has a unique and fun personality. Enjoy it. If it starts to show signs of stress, then worry.
> 
> I'm not sure what you mean by 'getting behind the wall'. Wall of what? Is there something between the back glass of the tank and the rest of the tank? (Sorry, I'm a bit confused there.)


Ah yeah about the wall, sorry...I meant to say I have a 3D back wall. I really don't have a clue what you call them in English but here's an example:

http://www.akwaline.nl/images/AZ 205.jpg

I have one that looks a lot like it. There's netting on the sides because there's a small bit of open space between the wall and the aquarium glass, and my eel slips through it like it's nothing. It's not really a problem as long as he doesn't stay there for long periods, at the moment that's not an issue since he swims so much he just ends up coming out on the other side in a few mins/seconds, despite the netting. I also don't want him to get stuck there hence I really need to replace the netting with something more effective.

As for now he's still happily cruising around. He pokes his nose into the sand all the time, looking for food...he's really enjoying to watch at least. He doesn't dig either (neither did my first eel) so apparently that's a good thing, since they like digging when stressed.

Thanks for your replies


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## NigelSt (Sep 24, 2011)

JenlovesFish said:


> The eel is fine i had a 5" fire eel once he was all way swimming and looking for food.. have u try earthworms... Mine 13" fire eel i had last year loooove them..


Hmm I hear this a lot. Can you buy earthworms in the store or do you go looking for them outside? I'd want to try feeding him one but well our garden is covered with wooden planks so I can't really start digging for them...


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## JenlovesFish (Apr 29, 2011)

NigelSt said:


> Hmm I hear this a lot. Can you buy earthworms in the store or do you go looking for them outside? I'd want to try feeding him one but well our garden is covered with wooden planks so I can't really start digging for them...


I buy them...


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## holly12 (Apr 21, 2011)

Ohhhhhhhhh, I get you now. Yep, we call 'em 3D walls/backgrounds here.


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