Snowflake Eeel aggression

[prime311]

Hey everyone,


I just added a 6-7" sub-pinkie size snowflake eel to my tank. Everything seemed fine until I fed him tonite for this first time. I was feeding my 4" Porc Puffer first and the Eel charged out and took a couple snaps at the Puffer. TBH I half expected the Puffer was going to take him out as I'm sure the Puffer could easily bite into him. Anyway he didn't appear to do any damage to the puffer and once the Puffer turned to check him out he ran off. The puffer seemed totally unfazed by the attack and didn't even puff up. Is this a normal thing for the Eel to do? One thing I suspect is he went to check for food and ran into the puffer and didn't know if he was food or not and has now learned his lesson. Another thing i suspect is that he was just trying to establish himself as something too dangerous for the puffer to attack. I'm hoping this is the case and will be the last sign of aggression between the 2. Anyway, are either of my suspicions possible and/or correct or is this just a mean Eel and a bad sign of things to come?


Thanks again for all the help!

[sean48183]

This is just a display of defense. He will not harrass your puffer at all. In fact you might be in trouble with the puffer biting your eels body. I have had a snowflake for about a year and he is very docile. At feeding time he comes out and goes a little bonkers but some of my fish bite his body as he is swimming about. Feel kind of bad for him. He has a blue w/yellow tail damsel that hangs right in front of his cave and he never messes with it. The damsel is always flapping his tail at his face and the eel just sits there. I feed mine 1-2 times daily though. Keeps them from trying to escape all the time. Trust me if you have any escape routes he will find it if he is hungry.

[prime311]

Well his only likely escape route is the tube ride down to my sump. I can't even do eggcrate right now as he slides right through it. He should be well fed though.

[pinkie]

Snowflake Eels have terrible vision, and most likely he went after your puffer simply because he thought it was food. It happens from time to time in my tank, but he never hurts anyone. He just grabs a fin, tugs on it, realizes it isn't food and lets go. My puffers don't even get mad when it happens.

I would say it is really a display of poor vision and mistakes than aggression, nothing to worry about, it may happen occasionally.

[college429]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=12801864#post12801864 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by pinkie
Snowflake Eels have terrible vision, and most likely he went after your puffer simply because he thought it was food. It happens from time to time in my tank, but he never hurts anyone. He just grabs a fin, tugs on it, realizes it isn't food and lets go. My puffers don't even get mad when it happens.

I would say it is really a display of poor vision and mistakes than aggression, nothing to worry about, it may happen occasionally.

This has also been my experience.