snow flake eels fighting?

I got two 8" snowflake eels for my sixty gallon reef tank about two weeks ago. both of them lived together at the fish store and they both ate and acted fine and everything i read said that they can live together if introduced together. my tank has plenty of live rock and caves for them, and everything went fine until about two days ago. one of the eels is acting more aggressive than the other and trying to always take the cave he is in, then tonight the less aggressive one has been swimming across the top of the tank all night trying to escape and the meaner one attacks him when he goes to the sand. i tried feeding them each some freeze dried shrimp but they keep acting this way. what should i do? will re arranging the rocks work like with fish or will it not help? if i am forced to get rid of one of them wich should i keep, will the more aggressive one start on fish next or does it not matter? thanks

 

Hi the Dude

personality issues - can develop with fish at any time, even fish that have been together some time
as they grow larger, they can often resent the restrictions on available territory
changing the rocks about IMO will only provide a temporary solution because as soon as new territories are chosen the aggressive one is going to want the full tank, irrespectove of how its set up

which one would I keep? Id keep the victor , simply because he won the contest for the territory and his prize should be to keep it rather than be evicted from it
both when they are big enough pose a risk to any fish they can fit in their mouths

Steve

 

thanks for replying, another wierd thing about them is that i have a coral banded shrimp which is to big to fit in there mouth so i took the risk of mixing them fearing for his saftey. he chases them down and pinches there necks with his claws he is very violent toward them and they seem to be afraid of him and stay out of his way. could he hurt them? do you think the one i keep will eventually kill him?

 

I think the CBS is trying to bluff the eels that they cant take him

I think sooner or later one of the eels will call that bluff

Steve

 

atlesast you dont have to worry about one eeating the other like mine did lol mainly because f size difference