LA
Fire eel -- neither small nor cheap. This guy's 30-inches long in a
well-covered 55.
Small
Spiny Eel Appeal. Each type of
spiny eel appeals in its own way. Smaller
eels – especially the peacocks with their “eyed” tails -- appeal to
community tank owners. They
burrow below the gravel with their flexible noses sticking out to sense
food. The smaller spinies also
cost less than the big lunkers – another plus for many people.
LA
Tire track eel -- bigger than the fire eel at maturity but not as expensive
Large
Spiny Eel Appeal. Lots of
people love larger fishes – the bigger the better. Both the tire track
eel and the fire eel present a striking picture – even before
they attain anywhere near their full size.
LA
In a bare tank, this 12-inch tire track tries to hide behind his sponge filter.
LA
Two tire track spiny eels fighting for the same "hiding space."
LA
This tire track jumped out and now looks beat up. Spiny eels love to
bail out.
LA
Strange new pattern appearing on tire tracks this year. Radial spiny
eels?
LA
Called a black spot spiny eel for obvious reasons.
LA
Pouring out a "tube o' spiny eels."
LA
Still pouring. Spiny eels love PVC tubes.
LA
Sometimes spiny eels decide to reside under your eel condo. They
like to hide.
LA
Here's the other end of one of the peacock spiny eels whose tail showed above..
Hiders.
Small spiny eels usually dig into the gravel to hide.
The larger guys need caves or ledges to lurk under.
They just don’t feel comfortable in bare tanks. We’ve seen
PVC tube condos in wholesaler tanks with one eel sticking out of each
tube. In bare tanks, they just bunch up together. Lean a piece
of slate against your front glass for an instant cave.
LA
Fire eel burrowing for worms.
LA
Fire eel hanging out in a 55 with other large fishes.
Gravel.
Avoid large or sharp-edged gravels.
They will slice into your eel’s skin.
They dig in the gravel searching for worms and security. Providing several hiding caves will help alleviate the
scratchy-gravel problem.
LA
Zig-zags -- probably the smallest spiny eels.
LA
Zig-zags like to lurk and snoop for food.
LA
Zig-zags bury themselves in the gravel with their snouts out -- like most other
spiny eels.
LA
Here's a zig-zag spiny eel out and about. He's nearly three-inches long.
LA
Not sure what these six-inchers are -- probably peacock spiny eels.
LA
Peacocks bleach out over white substrates.
Size.
See the chart for sizes. You
will never see a full-grown tire track or fire eel for sale. We saw
a 30-inch fire eel in Peoria (Pic at top), but they told us it was definitely not for sale.
Space.
Peacock spiny eels and zig-zag spiny eels live happily in 10 or 20-gallon aquaria.
The two big guys need a 30 or better.
LA
Tire track spiny eel looking for the fire exit. Cover any holes in your lid.
Nice pattern.
LA
Tire tracks prefer to reside in the back rows.
LA
Some will come to the front eventually.
Keep
Covered. All eels and
eel-shaped fishes jump out every time they can.
Keep yours very well covered.
Water.
Our “moderately hard” pH 7.5 Des Moines
water works fine for spiny eels. Avoid making
sudden chemical changes to your water.
Foods.
See the chart.
Add snails to clean up any excess food that falls to the bottom.
LA
Spiny eels do like plants but will occasionally dig them up.
LA
Spiny eels like to hide in the plants also.
Plant
Diggers. Since these spiny
eels burrow thru your gravel like the “Grabboids” in the movie Tremors,
don’t bother decorating with expensive plants.
They plow them up – not intentionally, just incidentally.
LA
Pic
Disease.
Spiny eels have no scales,
so they appear more susceptible to “fungus” diseases.
Beware of most fungus and parasite cures. Because
of their delicate skin, you’ll want to net your spiny eels in very soft nets.
Breeding.
You will not breed your spiny eels.
If you had access to the breeding extract made from carp pituitary
glands and some large, mud-bottomed ponds, your chances would increase
considerably.
LA
Spiny eels want worms.
Foods.
If you feed your spiny eels flake foods, they will last about three weeks
before they starve to death. Start
yours on live black worms – their natural food. Well, they never
met a California black worm
until they arrived in the U.S., but you get the picture.
Then add frozen tubifex worms, frozen
blood worms, and/or frozen brine shrimp.
If you can find mosquito larvae or glassworms, you will have happy
eels. The bigger eels graduate
to earthworms and then
nightcrawlers and fish.
LA
Your tire track spiny eel loves community fishes -- especially swords and moons.
Predators.
No doubt about it, the tire track spiny eels are definite predators.
A foot-long tire track (but not the fire eel) will eat the fish in
your community tank. They
start with neons and eat your swordtails last.
Gouramis need not fear them.
LA
Fire eel and three 10-inch tire track eels with a drab pattern sharing a slate "cave."
LA
Ten-inch fire eel hiding in the grass.
LA
Pretty guy called a starry night spiny eel.
LA
His tank mate measures 10-inches and looks just as impressive.
Last
Comments. You need clean
water to keep spiny eels. If
you have murky water with crud on the bottom, pick a different fish.
Also, vacuum your gravel, change part of the water, and add a power
filter. LA.
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LA Productions
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