Samantha T - 2008-01-27
I have bred zig zag eels, though it happened quite by accident. They had four sessions or so of babies within a month and a half period or so.
The female was rounder in the mid section but definately shorter then my male. They are very caring and were seen teaching their young to hunt blood worms in the substrate.
Some of the pieces of the puzzle to help them along was an Indian almond leaf added, and the blue light to make it seem like moonlight (the IAL was added to start conditioning my halfmoon betta male also in the tank). Also, I had gone against a lot of people's advice and had bought the second zig zag with too small a tank, the lack of space turned out to never be an issue, and the fry and parents thrived. Unfortunately my female died a few months ago (she was having some issues, almost looked like she was laboring and got something stuck, no other signs of injury or sickness, plus the tank was/is healthy). Her young and mate protected her body as I tried to remove it. They noticed her gone, as well as the fry as I had to start selling them off as they got bigger. The tank is only a 30 gallon... I thought I'd share my beginner's luck.

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Edwin Nieves - 2021-10-30
peacock eel

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RONALD P RAGLE - 2021-08-30
RONALD P RAGLE says:
August 27, 2021 at 4:27 pm
I have what I believe to be a black spotted spiny eel. I’ve had him for 5 years. He’s about 2 feet long. He lives in a 120 gallon tank. I have a Fluval FX-6 canister filter. I use 6 bags of carbon and the rest is mechanical filtration and a 100 gallon Aqueon filter that sits on top of the tank with 2 carbon inserts. The tank also has 2 power heads hooked up to a under gravel system and a large air stone and a wave maker that shoots water right down where he hangs out so I believe the water has more then enough oxygen for him. His tank mates are 2 full grown tin foil barbs, one green terror and 4 plecostomus. He’s eaten 2 tiny red worms in the last 6 weeks. He refuses to eat and has heavy breathing all the time (panting). I’ve tried cooler water, warmer water, aquarium salt and API general cure with no good results. I don’t know what else to try. Now that I think about it in the years past he has had times of heavy breathing but not continuously. I never figured it to be a bad thing because he was always eating. But now he doesn’t eat and the breathing is very heavy. On the outside he has no scratches or scrapes or puncture wounds and there’s no signs of ick or any type of white fungus anywhere. His outer body looks normal. I checked the water with a test kit and everything seemed to be fine. I also took a sample to my local pet store and had the water checked and that test also came back normal. No problem with the water. If there’s anything you can suggest it would be greatly appreciated. He’s a beautiful eel and I don’t want to lose him. I sent some pictures and a small video with this email.

pH – 7.6
Nitrite – 0
Nitrate – 80 – To me it looked close between 40 and 80 but the girl at the pet store said 80 so that’s what I’m going with.
Ammonia – 0

The tank has been set up for 5 years. Size 120 gallons. Last water change 1 week ago. Water source tap water. I do use water conditioner when doing water changes. Regular water changes every 4 weeks. Water and filter change every 6 weeks. Water parameters were checked today August 24th. I used a liquid test kit. Temperature 82. Tank mates 2 adult tin foil barbs, 4 adult plecostomus and 1 adult green terror female small. Like I said in my original email the eel has always had periods of heavy breathing but not continuously like this and has never refused food. That’s all I got for you. Please help.

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RONALD P RAGLE - 2021-08-27
I have what I believe to be a black spotted spiny eel. I've had him for 5 years. He's about 2 feet long. He lives in a 120 gallon tank. I have a Fluval FX-6 canister filter. I use 6 bags of carbon and the rest is mechanical filtration and a 100 gallon Aqueon filter that sits on top of the tank with 2 carbon inserts. The tank also has 2 power heads hooked up to a under gravel system and a large air stone and a wave maker that shoots water right down where he hangs out so I believe the water has more then enough oxygen for him. His tank mates are 2 full grown tin foil barbs, one green terror and 4 plecostomus. He's eaten 2 tiny red worms in the last 6 weeks. He refuses to eat and has heavy breathing all the time (panting). I've tried cooler water, warmer water, aquarium salt and API general cure with no good results. I don't know what else to try. Now that I think about it in the years past he has had times of heavy breathing but not continuously. I never figured it to be a bad thing because he was always eating. But now he doesn't eat and the breathing is very heavy. On the outside he has no scratches or scrapes or puncture wounds and there's no signs of ick or any type of white fungus anywhere. His outer body looks normal. I checked the water with a test kit and everything seemed to be fine. I also took a sample to my local pet store and had the water checked and that test also came back normal. No problem with the water. If there's anything you can suggest it would be greatly appreciated. He's a beautiful eel and I don't want to lose him. I sent some pictures and a small video with this email. pH - 7.6 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - 80 - To me it looked close between 40 and 80 but the girl at the pet store said 80 so that's what I'm going with.  Ammonia - 0 The tank has been set up for 5 years.  Size 120 gallons. Last water change 1 week ago. Water source tap water. I do use water conditioner when doing water changes. Regular water changes every 4 weeks. Water and filter change every 6 weeks. Water parameters were checked today August 24th. I used a liquid test kit. Temperature 82. Tank mates 2 adult tin foil barbs, 4 adult plecostomus and 1 adult green terror female small. Like I said in my original email the eel has always had periods of heavy breathing but not continuously like this and has never refused food. That's all I got for you.  Please help.   

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Sara - 2019-03-16
I’ve had two of these funky little noodles in my 75 gal community for a few months now, and both are doing great. They’re both about the same size and they came from the same store, so I haven’t seen any squabbles between them at all. My biggest recommendation if you own one of these is to try and train it to eat out of your hand. One of mine learned very quickly and now gets very excited whenever my hand goes in the tank. It doesn’t matter if I have food or not; he’ll weave between my fingers in his hunt for bloodworms. Their snouts are pretty soft, so he doesn’t poke hard enough to hurt. It makes water changes a lot more interesting.

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Anthony - 2019-03-09
I just purchased a peacock you'll last week and a few days later I woke up to the dog at 3 a.m. making a bunch of ruckus and there was my eel in front of the heater dried out like a worm on the sidewalk and when I grabbed it it twitched so I put it in the water in about an hour later it got all soggy again and started swimming around it's been fine ever since I asked to me it was out of the water for about 5 hours

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Kirsten - 2009-04-28
I have had a striped peacock eel for a few months now and absolutely love him, living in a 29 gallon with platys, tetras, and a loach. He disappeared one morning and thinking he had just buried himself under the gravel, I continued with my plan to clean my Whisper filter (you know - the external waterfall type filter) Taking it to the sink, I change out the filter bags and carbon and dumped the excess water down the drain to scrub the inside and too late, I watched my eel slide out of the filter - very much alive- and right into the garbage disposal. I was about to give him up for lost (i couldn't figure out how to open the pipes to try to save him in the u-part of the pipe), but before I did I shined the flashlight down the drain one last time and there he was sitting on the platform slithering around out of water and between the blades. After a 1/2 hour trying, I finally fished him out with a twisted up fish net and a spoon. I dumped him in a spare tub of aquarium water to "rinse" off the gunk he accumulated in the drain and quickly placed him back in the tank. 5 days later he is still alive and well, eating as usual and none the worse for wear - only a small scratch that is healing well. I never would have expected him to swim upstream/uphill AND out of the tank into my filter, not to mention surviving a 1/2 hour out of water and the stress of being chased around with implements to save his life. I thought for sure he was a goner, but he is hardier than I thought!

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Bryce - 2018-06-11
I have a question im thinking about getting one of these, what are some other freshwater exotic fish for 30 gal

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Tony - 2012-04-18
So I purchased a peacock eel, and after reading some posts, mine is nothing like any of the others. He/she does not bury himself/herself in the rocks, and I have not seen it eat anything either. Any ideas??????

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Seth - 2008-02-22
I seems like most people have issues trying to get these guys to eat. I have tried frozen tubiflex worms, shrimp pellets and minnows. I have not tried any freeze dried food such as bloodworms. One thing that I do know is that my PEACOCK EEL loves "EARTHWORMS"! Trust Me! Mine will feed right out of my hand and will beg like a puppy dog. I hold the worm with a pair of tweezers as it hits it with its lighting strike.....TRY THE EARTHWORMS!

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