Eels.

[melm]

Yer I understand melm, just like before i got my snake, i researched & researched.

I will call a few local aquarium shops & get some advise off them.
Thanks

Not a bad start but remember you will get alot of conflicting advice. The good thing with the forums, as I am sure you have disovered with this one, is the people giving advice aren't trying to sell you anything.

There is also a section on masa for 'new to the hobby' where there are marine biologists etc to answer all of your questions

 

[melm]

So are they easy to look after cause im beginning to think they arent lol

Not difficult, although I admit my tank did my head in for the first 12 months.

There is just alot of information you need - it isn't necessarily 'hard'.

 

[Ashleigh:]]

Yer so are they easy to look after??

 

[Ashleigh:]]

oh ok

 

[melm]

once your tank has cycled and you have good water quality with a good routine re water changes etc the eel is very easy to look after

Initial set up is quite costly though

Cheers

 

[gaara]

www.caudata.org

--

On the forum there they have info and what not on caelians (i think thats the term for eels).

 

[Adzo]

Salt water comes from the ocean

Seriously - that's where most of us get it from. can't beat nsw (natural sea water)

I think using natural seawater is a bad idea. Its full of plankton and other organism that will die in the tank, this can foul up the water really badly. (smell, algae blooms, etc)

 

[Ashleigh:]]

Does the water have to be heated or anything?

 

[NRE-808]

http://www.equarium.com.au/store/ - this might have all the bits and pieces that you will need - tests, furniture etc...

 

[Ashleigh:]]

Ta.

 

[carpetsnake]

the aquarium shop at morayfield is near bob jane t-marts

 

[Ashleigh:]]

Cheers i will have a look there tomorrow.
I was going to look there anyway

 

[cris]

You could always just get some long finned eels(freshwater ones) instead of being hard to keep alive i think they would be hard to kill. They will live in almost any water or sludge and eat just about anything meaty. They become 'tame' fairly quickly you just have to watch they dont climb out of you aquarium so you need a good lid.
They are just like other eels but not as decorative.

They are abit like snakes, only they have gills and seem to bit a bit smarter.

 

[marcus09]

Water has to be heated and u can buy sea salt just add to tap water and u have salt water need a week or 2 for the tank to work its self out and test water before you can put fish or eel in.

 

[melm]

Water has to be heated and u can buy sea salt just add to tap water and u have salt water need a week or 2 for the tank to work its self out and test water before you can put fish or eel in.

TAP WATER IS NOT RECOMMENDED FOR MARINE TANKS DUE TO CHLORINE, CHLORAMINE, PHOSPHATES AND ALOT OF OTHER NASTIES IN THE WATER.

BUYING SALT IS FINE IF YOU PREFER TO GO THAT WAY BUT YOU WILL NEED RO WATER TO MIX IT UP WITH.

With a 20kg bucket of salt costing more than $100 it's an expensive way to go. you will also find nsw has the correct levels of kh, calcium etc and if you are doing regular water changes you won't ever need to use any supplements with nsw. Unless you have a full reef tank which then calcium such as kalkwasser would definitely be needed.

Sorry, didn't realise caps was on up there.

A week or 2 is nowhere near enough for a marine tank to cycle. It would be a minimum of 4 weeks - adding any livestock before then is plain cruel.

As for using natural sea water, the die off from plankton has minimal, if no affect at all. I have changed 300 litres out of 500 and have had no die off - if there were die off ammonia would be present.

Most people filter their sea water as they are pumping it into containers and another alternative is to buy it from the aquarium store already filtered for about $5 per 25 litres.


Marcus please don't go giving people advice on things you aren't quite sure of yourself.

Setting up a martine tank isn't as easy as filling it with tap water, chucking in some salt and 2 weeks alter adding livestock - there is alot more to it than that and if you have been told otherwise I would suggest you do a bit of research as I would hate someone to be taking your advice right now.

Remember mother nature is very clever and replicating what she has done is not exactly easy.

 

[gaara]

I reiterate with http://www.caudata.org/forum/messages/24792/24792.html?1160401029

that link takes you directly to the eel section of the caudata.org forum. There will be people there who can actually help

 

[gaara]

here is another website that you may find handy.

http://gymnophiona.org/

 

[marcus09]

As i come from Dubbo which is 5 hours away from the sea it is abit hard to get sea water out here so tap water works get for me and has for many years.

 

[Ashleigh:]]

Thanks for the advise everyone
Chris's idea sounds good to start off with lol.