snowflake eel vs. yellowhead eel

I have recently set up my tank to be perfect for an eel. My plan was to get a snowflake eel. However my lfs does not have one in stock but they do have a yellowhead eel. My question is that will a yellowhead eel be simmilar to a snowflake eel. The other fish in the tank are two 3stripe damsels will a yellowhead eel eat fish unlike snowflake eels. also my tank is 75 gallon
thanks

 

In a word, NO...although they're nice-looking, Gymnothorax fimbriatus is one of the more aggressive morays, and is for sure a piscivore. Many aquarists keep these eels in species setups for that reason.

To be honest, having kept a SFE for about 15 years, they aren't as "safe" as many think they are, mostly because they are pretty safe before they hit maturity, but once they reach 18" - 20" they will often go postal and kill and/or eat their tankmates. I had to remove my specimen to "solitary confinement" because I was tired of losing fish to it.

HTH

 

thanks for the reply, I am probably going to wait til a snowflake eel is avalible

 

I do think you are missing Greg's point though. Once they hit full size, they do not seem to be good tankmates. So you may be left with a tank with a SFE and nothing else :-/

 

lolololol

 

yeah i had a snowflake eel and i lost my 7 inch niger trigger to it. crazy fish haha. not many eels are very friendly. the one that is most reef safe is the golden moray but those are a pretty penny

 

What? I've seen a puffer take out a snowflake eel, I'm sure a Niger could too. Lol

 

I've also had an SFE that killed puffers (tobies). However, and Arothron I had chewed the eel's doral area pretty badly, but it did heal up fine. The puffer ended up going back to the LFS as it was getting really nippy the larger it got.