Ever seen a Gymnothorax javanicus?

Oompa Loompa

Polypterus
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A moray with a huge school of damsel species look awesome too hehehe.
I love to watch my cleaning shrimp busy cleaning the moray and damsels at their cleaning station. My moray do enjoy a small snack damsel from time to time when that damsel run direct into it nose/mouth or badly injured from fighting with each other. Oddly, my rock beauty angel still live happily with my moray when all other bigger tank mates already become moray food.
Yeah, a large javanicus wouldn't really bother eating a tiny little damsel. They want to get some bigger food, they want snappers and groupers and the like, all bigger fish. They're not going to exert all the energy to eat one tiny little fish. Damselfish or a school of chromis would be a sweet combination to make the tank a bit more interesting, and yes you could keep some cleaner shrimp in there. There's nothing more awesome than seeing a monster moray with its mouth open and cleaner wrasses and shrimp eating away the dead flesh in between its teeth. Awesome site to see
 

LadAShark

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Yeah, with the bigger morays you're pretty much restricted to the biggest of the big - larger rays (southern stingrays, roughtail stingrays, spotted eagle rays, mantas, etc), big groupers (queensland, goliath, etc), and bigger sharks (bull, scalloped/great hammerheads, tigers, etc). Not much you can keep without any risk of losing it. Then again... a dimly lit tank with a giant moray in it during feeding time would be pretty awesome.
Yeah pretty much. Sounds like a really fun thing to do at some point in time, maybe when I get a new house and start investing into a serious aquarium room. Atm I'm just trying to get a mediterranean deepwater shark tank going. After that when I am a little richer I might try for a giant moray eel tank, that might be cool. Right now though there's a high possibility I might be in Turkey for six years, so constructing anything overly big would be tough.

A moray with a huge school of damsel species look awesome too hehehe.
I love to watch my cleaning shrimp busy cleaning the moray and damsels at their cleaning station. My moray do enjoy a small snack damsel from time to time when that damsel run direct into it nose/mouth or badly injured from fighting with each other. Oddly, my rock beauty angel still live happily with my moray when all other bigger tank mates already become moray food.
Yeah, snack damsels will work out, but anything more expensive is tough. It would be interesting to get some fish that readily breed (like mollies) going in the tank. But it's interesting that the rock beauty is still alive. Probably as the above poster said, it's too small to be worth actively consuming. I do wonder how you would feed such a monstrosity however.
 

Yuki Rihwa

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I do wonder how you would feed such a monstrosity however.
The cost of food for my Tess. Moray not really an issue cause seafood like squid. octopus, large lake smelt and many other frozen fishes always readily available in any local supermarket. If I want I can feed it 1 time a week depend on what I want to feed the cost will be around 3~5 bucks each time, but I feed my Tess moray 2x times a week so average cost around 6 bucks (feeding 1 time a week my Tess become extremely aggressive), its usually start looking for food after 36 hours from last meal).
 

Oompa Loompa

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The cost of food for my Tess. Moray not really an issue cause seafood like squid. octopus, large lake smelt and many other frozen fishes always readily available in any local supermarket. If I want I can feed it 1 time a week depend on what I want to feed the cost will be around 3~5 bucks each time, but I feed my Tess moray 2x times a week so average cost around 6 bucks (feeding 1 time a week my Tess become extremely aggressive), its usually start looking for food after 36 hours from last meal).
Also if you live by the water, boom easy free food. Just get some cheap fishing tackle (or really get into fishing and get some expensive tackle) and head down to the pier or a dock and catch a few decent sized "Trash fish", buy your fishing license of course and get saltwater fish but that's essentially free fish food right there. You could also use pinfish traps for larger fish, or cast nets
 

LadAShark

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The cost of food for my Tess. Moray not really an issue cause seafood like squid. octopus, large lake smelt and many other frozen fishes always readily available in any local supermarket. If I want I can feed it 1 time a week depend on what I want to feed the cost will be around 3~5 bucks each time, but I feed my Tess moray 2x times a week so average cost around 6 bucks (feeding 1 time a week my Tess become extremely aggressive), its usually start looking for food after 36 hours from last meal).
Hmm sounds reasonable.

Also if you live by the water, boom easy free food. Just get some cheap fishing tackle (or really get into fishing and get some expensive tackle) and head down to the pier or a dock and catch a few decent sized "Trash fish", buy your fishing license of course and get saltwater fish but that's essentially free fish food right there. You could also use pinfish traps for larger fish, or cast nets
Considering I live in near the pacific (an hour and a half away), and I can collect 72 mussels a day and an infinite amount of creatures like mole crabs, I guess it would indeed be maintainable. That and I could just go to the nearby H-mart and buy fish at 2 dollars a pound.

To clarify, however, I mean monstrosity as in the giant moray eels. Not just a tessalata. I do wonder how much a 8-12 foot eel would consume in a sitting. And can you inagine what it would take to prevent it escaping the tank? At least if another eel escaped the tank you could grab and put it back in. Some that big would be tough to handle without losing a digit. However, I am definitely intrigued.
 
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Oompa Loompa

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Hmm sounds reasonable.


Considering I live in near the pacific (an hour and a half away), and I can collect 72 mussels a day and an infinite amount of creatures like mole crabs, I guess it would indeed be maintainable. That and I could just go to the nearby H-mart and buy fish at 2 dollars a pound.

To clarify, however, I mean monstrosity as in the giant moray eels. Not just a tessalata. I do wonder how much a 8-12 foot eel would consume in a sitting. And can you inagine what it would take to prevent it escaping the tank? At least if another eel escaped the tank you could grab and put it back in. Some that big would be tough to handle without losing a digit. However, I am definitely intrigued.
I'd seriously consider a few padlocks on the tank to keep that thing in. Even small snowflake eels can get out pretty easily, a giant would be a damn near unstoppable force. Insanely powerful fish. Mussels and mole crabs... forget about that. Go for a big ray or a 15-pound fish or so and use that for a few feedings. I would imagine feeding one of the larger morays would be like feeding a python the same size - large meals every few weeks, fasting in between (except perhaps maybe small live snacks)
 
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LadAShark

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Upon further research, I have found that the giant moray eel is actually known to engage in cooperative hunting with the roving coral grouper (a 4 foot fish). It would be quite interesting to have a tank combo like that, though it might eliminate damsels quickly.
 

LadAShark

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I'd seriously consider a few padlocks on the tank to keep that thing in. Even small snowflake eels can get out pretty easily, a giant would be a damn near unstoppable force. Insanely powerful fish. Mussels and mole crabs... forget about that. Go for a big ray or a 15-pound fish or so and use that for a few feedings. I would imagine feeding one of the larger morays would be like feeding a python the same size - large meals every few weeks, fasting in between (except perhaps maybe small live snacks)
Free food is what I was gonna rely on for smaller sharks. For a giant moray, that won't cut it. I can probably just get a shellfish license, and go out to catch crabs every now and then while keeping a side coldwater crab tank if I want live feed. That or I can flash freeze the crabs to kill them, and toss them in like that. I think whole crabs should be somewhat satisfactory, right?

And padlocks seems like the minimum. That thing is effectively a behemoth.
 

Oompa Loompa

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Upon further research, I have found that the giant moray eel is actually known to engage in cooperative hunting with the roving coral grouper (a 4 foot fish). It would be quite interesting to have a tank combo like that, though it might eliminate damsels quickly.
That would be one of the best-looking displays if done correctly. The grouper may take out a few damsels but not enough to notice. They're cheap too.

To reply to your other post, crabs would probably work out if they were big. And chances are you won't be getting enough of those big crabs. I would imagine fish would be much easier than crabs to feed a big moray like that. One thing I would say - go with fresh, dead fish. It will smell, yes. Live foods tend to get predatory fish hooked on nothing but live feeders, which can be difficult to get them off of. I especially wouldn't risk it with something as rare as this eel.

Padlocks would probably be the minimum, bolting the tank down as well would be a good idea. The tank should probably never be fully opened, that's a recipe for disaster. This is a fish that can actually seriously injure someone - a green can take off fingers and hands and give you stitches, a giant could probably take off an arm if it was motivated. They're solid muscle, like a snake.
 

LadAShark

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That would be one of the best-looking displays if done correctly. The grouper may take out a few damsels but not enough to notice. They're cheap too.

To reply to your other post, crabs would probably work out if they were big. And chances are you won't be getting enough of those big crabs. I would imagine fish would be much easier than crabs to feed a big moray like that. One thing I would say - go with fresh, dead fish. It will smell, yes. Live foods tend to get predatory fish hooked on nothing but live feeders, which can be difficult to get them off of. I especially wouldn't risk it with something as rare as this eel.

Padlocks would probably be the minimum, bolting the tank down as well would be a good idea. The tank should probably never be fully opened, that's a recipe for disaster. This is a fish that can actually seriously injure someone - a green can take off fingers and hands and give you stitches, a giant could probably take off an arm if it was motivated. They're solid muscle, like a snake.
A grouper moray combo is indeed probably one of the coolest combos possible.

As for crabs? I've gotten 12 crabs in one go after crabbing for an hour and a half. Casually, with one trap. That might be just dumb luck, but I could use it as a supplement to the fish. I do wonder how many pounds I would have to feed the two of these fish. I think I would definitely be feeding 10s of pounds a month right?

I would probably give the tank some small feeding openings, and otherwise bolt it down. The glass would have to be extra thick as well. I would keep an anaesthetic on hand, in case I need to maintain the tank, so I could knock out the fish. Sounds like fun, but not something I'm doing within the next 6 years. I might start the construction in my free time though.

Makes it feel like some sort of jurassic park ;P
 
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