.... need advice ....

In addittion to our 55 gallon tank we are in the process of cycling......

I saw a really good priced 55-gallon tank on craigslist and I (ash) am thinking about picking it up and starting another tank in the living room because Mike wanted to get a Snowflake Eel, and from what I've been reading about them... they can get aggressive towards other fish/inverts in a reef tank... and may get kinda big too 0.0. I did however have a question, because one source I was reading said they need a minimum of 45 gallons, another said 50, and a third I was reading said 125 gallon? I know as a general rule of thumb, the bigger the better as far as the tank goes, but the 55-gallon is what I can afford right now since we bought the other one we started so reccently... Do you think that it will do for a small snowflake eel? (We eyed one at the LFS that was about 7.5 inches long, and about .75 inches wide... I know that they said it can grow to about 3ft long...)

If we do get that tank, I think that the only other things I would look into putting in it would probably be either a volitan/dwarf lionfish OR an angler/leaf fish of some sort, or maybe a Longnose Hawkfish.... and cleaner snails....


Any input would be GREAT!

 

Snails would become snacks to the eel

If you get the eel, you could probably fit a smaller lion in that size tank Hawkfish=Snack

 

I would hold off and save some more money and buy whatever sized tank you REALLY want because a 55g is a poor choice for a reef IMO. They are tall and narrow, with liverock all you can really do is build a wall against the back glass which creates horrible flow in one.

The reason why they're a dime a dozen is because so many use to have them before the prices really dropped on larger tanks. So all those old skool reefers who had 55g's got rid of them.

 

but the 55 is for an eel and/maybe a lion.

 

http://www.3reef.com/forums/tropical-fish/lionfish-envasion-s-fla-49840.html

 

they are in Alaska

 

read my post on that thread

 

Just did, good point

 

I completely agree with you both on that, but I was researching this particular species of lionfish, and they say the care level is easy to moderate and their maximum size of growth is about 6 inches. If I am not mistaken, isn't the general rule of thumb something like 3 gallons per inch of fish?
It was just a thought, not saying I absolutely NEED a lionfish. TBH my fave fish to have would probably be either a leaf fish or a rock-fish or angler of some sort.
I just figured that a whole nother tank for just a 8inch eel would be rather... spacious? ... and I thought that maybe if I just put one fish in with it that it would be okay.

 

All of those are aggressive fish that newbs go out and buy because "they're cool", then they eat all the tank mates and then get rid of it because they cant keep nothing with them. Im just trying to save you money and grief in the long run.


My favorite fish (groupers/snappers) will not touch any of my tanks because its aggressive and gets large. But someday... When I set up my several thousand gallons tank, I will have some!