tesselated takes another one

[live&learn]

I guess I should have known better. I had the "good fortune" of picking up a small 7 to 8 inch tesselated moray eel knowing their reputation, but I've loved it for years so I couldn't resist. I love to watch the fish grow plus I've herd that if you rase them togeather you have a better chance. I found a small minuratis grouper about 2.5 inches long. I figured the eel is narrower than the grouper so I took a chance. After putting them togeather and nervously watching I noticed the grouper swimming up to the eel with thretning posture laying its body against the eels face. The eel in turn deciding that it couldn't fit the fish in his mouth would move away. A week goes by, great I thought with the rest of my stocking list in mind. Anyway my wife and I are sitting there next thing we caught the movement out of the corner of our eyes was the grouper getting cut in half by the eel You can imagine the how happy my wife was to witness that. I love stories so I hope you enjoyed this one as much as me:( Anyway the reason for the post is are ther any fish I can keep with this guy. I dont feel like buying $30 feeders.
I was thinking maby a small cat shark and a bluespot stingray?

[johno4]

And you think the shark or stingray wont get bitten in half because....

[justinl]

sorry bout the loss. ah well, that's the food chain in action.

only if the shark or ray is a lot bigger than the eel. however since you have an eel, im assumingyou have lots of rockwork. and if you have a lot of rockwork, forget the ray. a bamboo catsharks wouldn't fare a lot better than the wee grouper. so unless you got a 1000gal tank for a black tip reef shark, forget it.

so what is safe? something a lot bigger than the eel's head. i mean a LOT bigger. as you've already seen, 2.5 inches doesn't cut the cake.

[live&learn]

Right now he's in a 40 gallon tank with about 35 pounds of live rock. I'm happy to do the water changes add rocks etc as size permits until I upgrade. I'm thinking a 280. I know right now there are lots of fish that I could put with him, I'm more thinking about long term, or is that my problem. He gets too big. Thanks in advance for your candor

[justinl]

whoooo 40 gal eh? lol you know this guy gets up to about 6 feet right? you'll definitely want to be upgrading to that 280 or getting rid of him.

the problem is that i don't think there is anything big enough to be safe that will actually be comfortable in a 40 gal.

i don't know if 280 gal is big enough for a 6 foot eel though... *shrug* anyone else?

[eljefe3]

I have a 3 foot tessalata and all he eats are the shrimp, squid and other fresh foods from the sea food market. As soon as he bumps into a fish, he moves on. I've had him for about two years and not one fish has been taken down, even though he surely could. Perhaps your tessalata wasn't being fed enough or being fed the right foods.

[live&learn]

True about the feeding. At the LFS he was fed about 4 or 5 minnows every week or so. I obvously watched him eat (minnows) before purchase. He took 4 of the 5 offered. Since I got him home I changed his diet to chopped shrimp and baby octopus wich he gets every second day (fat belly at the end of every meal;) ). The second point was the rockwork, They each had their own "cave" to claim and stay hidden. eljefe3 showes that it's possible to keep these beautiful creatures with other fish but then again if his eel is in the tank in his gallery then I need to look for some better paying gigs:eek1: