Dwarf moray eel.

[sailfish2]

I fairly recently added a Golden dwarf moray ell and two different full grow fairy wrasse looked to have been attacked during the night.

Is this possible/likly it was the eel?

I feed him almost daily but he acts like he is always hungry. I plan to start feeding him more and or lager pieces of silver sides. He is a good 12" long.

The thing is it has only been full grown 4"plus wrasses. I have juvenile females he could eat whole if he wanted to. Is this some sort dispute or is he trying to eat them.

I really think it is him because there seems to be damage on both sides of the wrasse like a mouth did it.

The only other thing I can come up with would be an emerald crab. I plan to watch the tank at night as best I can for a few days and see if anything else shows it head. I have never had this problem till recently but I added emerald crabs and the Eell around the same time.

Any help from those with experience with dwarf golden mary Eel would be great.

Thanks Joe

[LobsterOfJustice]

Maybe the full grown ones are fighting with each other.

[maxxII]

If its 12 inches long, its a huge dwarf moray.....

I had a 7 inch Golden Dwarf Moray for about a year. It ate one of my small clowns, but no trouble for any of the other inhabitants of the tank. Its now in a 120 with several larger fish including smaller wrasses and clowns, no worries.

Nick

[sailfish2]

Yes I am sure it's not from the fish fighting. Something is getting them after lights out. At first I thought he was just disturbing their sleep and they hurt them selves running from their whole but the last two times it looks like bite marks on both sides of their bodies.

Do you think he will stop after he figures out he can't eat them or will this continue and maybe get worse.

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd223/sailfish88/Fulllengtheel.jpg

http://i220.photobucket.com/albums/dd223/sailfish88/Eel1-1.jpg

Thanks Joe

[maxxII]

Feed the eel more then. A well fed eel wont go after things....

Nick

[mrwilson]

That little eel looks so cool in that tank, I'd just go ahead and feed him the wrasses if he wanted them. j/k

+1 on trying to just feed him more.

[Western_reefer]

+1

Just feed him more. :)

[myerst2]

I am very close to a diver that regularly collects these eels, wouldn't be suprised if he caught this one. He says about 1 in 50 are for some reason have forgotten what species they are and are very aggressive. Also don't waste your time with super fatty silversides, they have little nutrition. Use pieces of fresh chopped fish and shellfish. They should be fed to cessation every couple of days. Good luck. One of my favorite eels of all time. T

[FMarini]

G Melatremus is a fish eater, however we consider them fish-safe because they don't seem to go after fish they can't fit into their mouths.
Thats said, if you keep small fish w/ a dwarf golden moray, and it can fit it into its mouth- it will potshot it.
It just used to be NO ONE would keep small fish in w/ these eels. we didn't have access to small fish, so it just wasn't mentioned much.
Beautiful pictures BTW-

[sailfish2]

Thanks for the responses. He wants to eat everyday and seems to really only want silversides. He will sometimes eat krill. I will try some shell fish and see what he does.

I will feed him more but that just seems like alot of food. I was already feeding two 1.5 to 2" pieces of silver sides each day. I was cutting the head off just because.

Joe

[sufunk]

I've had mine for about 18 months and i've never had a problem with him. I only feed mine every 2-3 days at the most and i;ve never even once seen any aggression out of him. Other than the absolute smallest gobies, i dont think a GDM could even attempt to go after a fish.

He's wayyyy too small to even try to go after my tangs and he's never gone close to my false perc or anthias. I guess it's possible you got a mean one but i'd be pretty surprised if the GDM was responsible for the problems. Ime, they are 100% reef safe.

[wookie]

I just acquired two dwarf eels from different sources, one direct from Hawaii and the other from a local reefer. I was worried that they would not get along but both are playing nice.

myerst2, what kind of fresh fish do you recomend?

sufunk, what do you feed your eel?

I have been feeding silversides also every 2-3 days

[sufunk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15714238#post15714238 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by wookie
I just acquired two dwarf eels from different sources, one direct from Hawaii and the other from a local reefer. I was worried that they would not get along but both are playing nice.

myerst2, what kind of fresh fish do you recomend?

sufunk, what do you feed your eel?

I have been feeding silversides also every 2-3 days

I go to the supermarket and get 4-5 shrimp every month. It literally costs about 50 cents and i fereze them which lasts me at least the month.

Every 2-3 days, i cut about a quarter of a shrimp off, then cut that down to 3-4 manageable pieces for the GDM.

I cant imagine even a hungry GDM going after a 4 inch fish. My anthias are smaller than that and so is my false perc. Even after not feeding for a week or more on a few occasions, I've never seen him show any aggression.

I used to have a copperbanded butterfly in there and i swear they would almost play together. The cbb would sit right outside his hole at feeding time and the GDM would comeout and just rub his head against him. He'd never really open his mouth, just rub the side of his head against the cbb's side:confused: They'd stay doing that for 5 minutes or more sometimes???

[Western_reefer]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15714277#post15714277 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by sufunk

I used to have a copperbanded butterfly in there and i swear they would almost play together. The cbb would sit right outside his hole at feeding time and the GDM would comeout and just rub his head against him. He'd never really open his mouth, just rub the side of his head against the cbb's side:confused: They'd stay doing that for 5 minutes or more sometimes???
Maybe the DDM was giving the CBB a massage? :lol: :lol:

[sufunk]

I'm telling you it was so weird!!! I'm half convinced the GDM was trying to get his groove on with the cbb;)

[John Dawe]

I had a small one that would only eat 'feeder' damsels, it would not touch guppys. Smart eel. If the fish was too big, it would usually end up bitting a part of the fishes head off. The bigger eels would usully take squid. Any fish that will fit in its mouth is far game soon or later.

[sufunk]

<a href=showthread.php?s=&postid=15717620#post15717620 target=_blank>Originally posted</a> by John Dawe
I had a small one that would only eat 'feeder' damsels, it would not touch guppys. Smart eel. If the fish was too big, it would usually end up bitting a part of the fishes head off. The bigger eels would usully take squid. Any fish that will fit in its mouth is far game soon or later.

I dont think you are referring to Golden Dwarf Moray's with that statement. I've never seen any aggression at all and i'd say a large majority of people who have owned them would agree. No way,ime, is he going to attempt to go after a larger fish and bite part of it's head off.

[LargeAngels]

Mine loves Hikari Jumbo mysis and doesn't bother any fishes.

[snorvich]

For variety, you might consider pieces of squid. Here that is easily obtainable at the supermarket.

[wookie]

Thanks for the food suggestions...I'm out to the supermarket.

[John Dawe]

"I dont think you are referring to Golden Dwarf Moray's with that statement. I've never seen any aggression at all and i'd say a large majority of people who have owned them would agree. No way,ime, is he going to attempt to go after a larger fish and bite part of it's head off."

I am talking about very small damsel as feeder fish, the one that got a big chunk of its head bit off was a damsel that was too big to fit into the eels mouth. I had that eel for 2 1/2 years, I could never get it to eat anything but feeder damsels. It was very interesting to watch. A damsel would be near the bottom next to a rock and the eel would swim past it and block its escape with its body and then turn its head back and grab the fish.