kalodelmar said: Precious baby <3 I would guess they’re tough to take care of?
Every time I get this question I say that no, they’re really quite easy to care for. But I’m starting to realize this may be difficult to understand for folks that aren’t used to saltwater.
Eels typically need high quality food, large tanks, lots of cleaning, and lots of hiding spots. The equipment like the skimmer can be pretty pricey.
However, most of the commonly available moray species adapt to captivity remarkably easily. This is why I say they are very easy. You won’t see sudden deaths or failures to thrive/adapt as much as you would see in other WC saltwater fish. They are very easy in this way. They can tolerate bad water conditions, they are pretty resistant to parasites, and don’t usually come in with many issues like other fish.
For a reference point, the toughest fish I’ve treated/kept were tiger queen anthias, regal angels, and various butterflies which would come with velvet, internal/external bacterial infections, swim bladder disease, marine ich, flukes, internal parasites, etc etc etc.. On top of being hesitant about eating at first. But see, eels don’t really come in with all that junk very much. Getting them healthy isn’t much of a battle. Whereas for other fish, I could have them in quarantine for months and months getting them ready for their lives in the display tank. And some of these need to be fed small meals 5-10x a day... Saltwater fish can be really high maintenance.
(Most available) eels have certain keeping requirements, but they are easy to get started and aren’t finicky... They are the hardiest fish I’ve ever kept. And they only need to be fed 2-3x a week about. I’d call them low maintenance and easy..... compared to other saltwater fish.
