# Freshwater Aquariums > General Freshwater Topics > Tropical Chit Chat >  "electric eel"

## bdoak1981

Anybody else own electric eels, i own a 2 year old 49 inch myself. wondering if theres any other keepers about?uploadfromtaptalk1441876391644.jpg

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## Gary R

Welcome to Fish-keeping.com m8 hope you enjoy our forums.

Not got one myself ...but have caught a couple of eels in the past fishing, not the electric eel kind. 

I would say not many would own one of these as they can grow to between Six to eight feet long in the right connditions....were do you keep this yourself ? I would say a very large tank in doors or do you have a nice size shallow pool aerated, filtered and heated outside ?

Let us know 

Regards Gary

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*bdoak1981* (10-09-2015)

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## bdoak1981

currently in an 8 x 2 x 2 but moving to a 12 x 6 x 4 heated indoor pond. it is fact not a true eels but the worlds largest species of knifefish  :Wink:  thanks for the welcome  :Smile:  

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## Gary R

That sounds like a nice new home for it  :Smile:  .....do you have any fish at all or is it just the eel.

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## bdoak1981

yes i also have 5 blue eyd panaques. i am an experienced hobbyist and had my own shop once aswell as 30+ tanks from marine, freshwater brackish to coldwater brackish, coldwater and tropical. i have kept a huge array of various tricky species but my eel is my fav  :Wink:  

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## lost

welcome to fish keeping mate any pictures

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## Gary R

> yes i also have 5 blue eyd panaques.
> Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk


Another fish that you don't see many of and first appeared around the mid-1970s I think.

Sounds like you enjoy your unusual fish in this hobby  :Smile:

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*bdoak1981* (14-09-2015)

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## bdoak1981

yeah i guess i do, i love all manor of fish but only last few years kept oddball of many varieties. what fish do you keep gary? 

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## lost

> yeah i guess i do, i love all manor of fish but only last few years kept oddball of many varieties. what fish do you keep gary? 
> 
> Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk


You name it he has either kept it or keeps it  :lol:

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## Gary R

:lol:  @ lost

Over the years I have had tropical fish, cichlids, marine tanks loads of  :Smile:  and 3 Koi ponds

nothing as fancy as yours........

I did have 6 marine tanks going at the same time in each room in the house until the mrs put her foot down and now back to just the one in the back room which is a 6x2x2

I'm 3/4 the way doing my new koi pond which as been on going for the last 3 months it is just over 2100 gals

so into my fish in a small way  :pmsl:

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## bdoak1981

> @ lost
> 
> Over the years I have had tropical fish, cichlids, marine tanks loads of  and 3 Koi ponds
> 
> nothing as fancy as yours........
> 
> I did have 6 marine tanks going at the same time in each room in the house until the mrs put her foot down and now back to just the one in the back room which is a 6x2x2
> 
> I'm 3/4 the way doing my new koi pond which as been on going for the last 3 months it is just over 2100 gals
> ...


same here, ive kept anything from blue ringed octopus, seahorses, cuttlefish(not together) to general guppies and platys etc had loads. largest fish so far is my current length wise but had various tankbuster tropicals and marines but had some woppers.its the same in my house with my misses, im limited to only the two setups. But currently building trop pond for the electric eel taking up an outdoor brick shed which sadly has been a frozen project due too a vet bill that drained my funds. will finish it eventually  :lol:  always do. 

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## bdoak1981

> @ lost
> 
> Over the years I have had tropical fish, cichlids, marine tanks loads of  and 3 Koi ponds
> 
> nothing as fancy as yours........
> 
> I did have 6 marine tanks going at the same time in each room in the house until the mrs put her foot down and now back to just the one in the back room which is a 6x2x2
> 
> I'm 3/4 the way doing my new koi pond which as been on going for the last 3 months it is just over 2100 gals
> ...


what dimensions is the pond your building gary? 

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## Gary R

Its a funny shape pond 

But it is 4.5ft deep x 15ft x 12ft abouts going in to 5ft at the far end. 

when I metered it, it was just over 2100 gals and still some to go to fill it....but this will not be done until next year now as still got some more bricks to add to the hight.

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*bdoak1981* (21-09-2015)

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## bdoak1981

sounds lovely mate, im currently building a 12 x 6 x 4 for my electric eel. once she hits the 6 foot mark or close too will move to a 16 x 9 x 4 just for the one fish i must been insane. you will have to put up pics when your done. is it for koi you have grown on yourself? 

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## Gary R

All that for one eel.... thought I was mad  :lol:  

My pond is for my koi yes.... I have 20 in there at the moment, did have 10 when I started the re-build, but the Chagoi found it hard being moved and died, it was one of me biggest which was 24" long and I had it for 15 years and a 19" Utsuri  which thought it would jump out of the swimming pool when I was at work and that was with a net over it  :Frown: 
So have added 12 new one's over the last 2 months costing over £2500 ranging from a 18" Doitsu Hariwake, two 18" Doitsu Kohaku, 16" Shiro Utsuri, 16" Tancho plus a few other's  ...but don't tell my Mrs as she will go nuts.

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*bdoak1981* (21-09-2015)

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## bdoak1981

> All that for one eel.... thought I was mad  
> 
> My pond is for my koi yes.... I have 20 in there at the moment, did have 10 when I started the re-build but one found it hard being moved and died me biggest which was 24" long and had for 15 years and a 19" which thought it would jump out of the swimming pool when I was at work and that was with a net over it 
> So have added 12 new one's over the last 2 months costing over £2500 ...but don't tell my Mrs as she will go nuts.


yeah they are pricey depending on types etc my friend has a pond most of us could only dream, has some absolute giant albino sturgeon and when i say giant i mean 8 foot+ in with them he has various koi, again they are absolute monsters!!! few smaller ones in there too. in the summer he has got in swimming with them. he must of spent atleast 200k+ on these(yes im serious  :lol: ). cant remember the dimensions though, bloody deep!!! hadnt seen him for years and when i popped in to a kennels he owns he gave me a tour. i dont have a coldwater pond myself but if carling did ponds that would be it. money to burn ay. hunt about for better netting mate last thing you want is to lose anymore. when i had me own shop once out back i had a pond(already there when i moved in) which i kept orfe tench goldfish and various allsorts plus carp, was over stocked. about 16 x 20 x 4 i netted it as bleeding heron had a taste for the orfe in particular plus the orfe love to jump ou, bout a week later i had a few various fish dead stuck in the net, heron was trying to pull them through the net but tangling them up in the process. eventually put friend german shepherd out back for a week and heron moved on.  i then had a large rollout plastic mesh cover put over n had no trouble after that nightmare  :lol:  

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*Gary R* (21-09-2015)

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## Gary R

Will be getting in with mine sometime this week, as i'v got some more rocks dropped off last night from a m8 who found them sorting his garden out and need to put the new buddha that I have at the back of the pond.

I did put some pictures on here, of my pond build but they are upside down so will take some more and try again.

Hopfully the way I have my pond with all the trees around no heron would try to land there as will find it hard to take off again ....I hope. 

The netting is now gone it was only for the round swimming pool I got as a holding tank for them until I got the pond sorted enough to put them back in.

would of liked to seen your m8s pond sounds nice as well.

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## bdoak1981

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cK3NX1noCmk

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## Gary R

well I have notice that my pond heater as started to kick in now in the evenings...I have it set to switch on at 15c and go off at 15.5c

God knows what the bill would be for your eel once its in a pond  :EEK!:

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*bdoak1981* (30-09-2015)

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## bdoak1981

> well I have notice that my pond heater as started to kick in now in the evenings...I have it set to switch on at 15c and go off at 15.5c
> 
> God knows what the bill would be for your eel once its in a pond


apparently set for a very cold winter this year too, just a heads up. definitely far colder all of a sudden. Always best to be prepared :Smile:  

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