Can I keep Fire Eel with tetras?

[Revan]

Hello All,

I recently put a 6-8 inch Fire Eel in my 125g community tank. Most of the fish in there are large enough to not be threatened by the Fire Eel, even when it's full grown. However I would like to also keep a school of cardinal and lemon tetras (both species will max out at 2 inches).

I know the general rule is "if it can fit in it's mouth, it'll be food". But I'm wondering if it's at all possible to keep tetras and a fire eel together. Someone suggested to me that if I raise them up together, the eel may view the tetras more as part of the environment, rather than food. But I wanted thoughts from fellow eel keepers.

Thank you for your time and input!

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Pretty much a gamble. You could try to raise them up together and the fire eel might be just fine, or he could decide one day that he wants to start picking them off.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Also, are you going to be upgrading your tank when the fire eel gets bigger?

 

[Revan]

Also, are you going to be upgrading your tank when the fire eel gets bigger?

Thank you for the feedback. I think I'll take the gamble and see what happens. Worst case is my eel will have a good meal. Haha.

And yes, I plan to eventually set up a monster tank (300+ gallons) which I could move him to. However that'd be a couple years down the road.

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

I have lemon tetras in my grow out. My tire track started swimming alongside them at about 10 inches with his mouth open he knew he wasn't big enough...yet but he liked to check a lot - that's when I knew it was time to move on to rainbowfish. You might not get that kind of warning. He's pushing 16 inches now and gave up trying to eat giant danios and rainbowfish real quick a while ago. All that frozen food it gobbles up is sooo much easier to catch lol

 

[zukiGS500]

I raised a fire eel up from 6 inches to 30, tried feeding him guppies when he was young, tried to eat one, spit it out, and never went after any of the others. I've always had some combo of zebra dainos, rummy nose and cardinal tetras in with him, never showed any interest in them at all.

 

[Experiment397]

my 8" tiretrack has no issues sneaking up and munching on the feeder guppies/danios i use for my other fish. personally wouldnt risk it. could be expensive snacks. id just go for rainbowfish if you want schooling color. i bred them for years, hard to beat for color and activity. giant danios could be an option too

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

A full grown fire eel will probably be able to grab a giant danio.

 

[Experiment397]

The giant danios might survive just from their speed. They swim at warp speed when they want to

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

The bigger the fire eel... the fatter the fire eel. In a big tank he'd have to get incredibly lucky to snag a giant danio-. In a smaller tank they probably wouldn't last very long.