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What is the minimum tank size for a Fire Eel?

MonsterMinis said:
no ones really addressed how HARD fire eels are to feed. Most often they refuse anything but live foods ( which are much more expenisive then pellets or flakes) They are not "cheap" pets to keep. I spend more feeding my spineys then I do my cat ( who is on a premium diet ).
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It seems that most people opt to feed them frozen foods, which are actually cheaper, pound for pound, than any decent pelleted food. Not sure how difficult it is to wean them onto these foods, but considering the number of people who do it successfully, I wouldn't expect it to be terribly difficult.

Chub_by said:
I said normally they don't get that big. There certainly are fire eels(maybe even Armatus) that big, I'm not saying that's wrong. But those are very large specimens.
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The thing is, that isn't just one freak incident. There are pics and threads about large spinies all over the place, yet people claim it is not "normal" for them to get that large. And it isn't even one of those cases where it just takes a long time to get them to their maximum sizes (e.g. datnoids), either; I've heard anywhere from 3-5 years as the time frame to get a fire eel well into the 30-40" range, which is really not unreasonable for most keepers who know what they're doing.



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One note, pound for pound frozen is cheaper, but frozen is mostly water. Dehydrate your frozen food down to the amount found in a pellet and you have a lot less food. Although I've never seen a fire eel on a pellet in person.


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jclyde13 said:
The thing is, that isn't just one freak incident. There are pics and threads about large spinies all over the place, yet people claim it is not "normal" for them to get that large. And it isn't even one of those cases where it just takes a long time to get them to their maximum sizes (e.g. datnoids), either;
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There are lots of threads about huge spiny eels, but people post more threads ( and these get more attention ) about specially big fish than about normal or small sized fish.
By the way, the OP asked about minimum captive size and not maximum captive size.
 
aclockworkorange said:
One note, pound for pound frozen is cheaper, but frozen is mostly water. Dehydrate your frozen food down to the amount found in a pellet and you have a lot less food. Although I've never seen a fire eel on a pellet in person.
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Yeah, that's probably true, but it is still a good staple, ime, as long as it's supplemented with other foods. And I don't recall which member it was, but there was someone on here who said their fire eel was on pellets. I know from experience that M. armatus can be trained to accept pellets, but I guess fire eels could be more stubborn.

Chub_by said:
There are lots of threads about huge spiny eels, but people post more threads ( and these get more attention ) about specially big fish than about normal or small sized fish.
By the way, the OP asked about minimum captive size and not maximum captive size.
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When did the OP say anything about a "minimum captive size?" You don't base future tank setups on the "minimum captive size" of the fish you plan to keep. If you were doing that, you could theoretically keep a senegal bichir in a 10 gallon, an endlicheri or even an oscar in a 40 gallon, etc. I would say, unless your fire eel dies a tragic early death or something, it can definitely be expected to reach at least 36" in time. Regarding your claim that people post more threads about large eels, that may have some truth to it, but people post threads about their eels of all sizes, ranging from juvies up to 40" monsters, yet somehow the eels in the 28-32" category are rarely over 3 years old. Funny how that works.
 
Since no body else seems to have mentioned it yet, make sure no matter what eel you do end up with, that you seal or at the very least cover all holes...

Eels are true escape artists... I used to have a fire eel that i named houdini based on the fact it escape out of a very small hole in my lid i never thought it would fit through..

The 2nd time it got out a few months later when i was asleep it passed away...

Also i agree they are not the easiest fish to feed, although with a lot of patience you can ween them into frozen foods and will accept hand feeding...


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Tom the bomb said:
they grow around 50-70cm I say you need a 180 gallons minimum. preferably 240G
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Some older retired members kept the eels in larger tanks, 300g+. Biggest was a 36in + that was seen. The eels were big and thick. Couldn’t see them in a 180g minimum.

@keepinfish had a big eel. Maybe he can share some input.
 
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