Marine fish question?

I hate to discourage anyone from attempting to keep such an interesting fish species, but I will warn you that garden eels (most likely Heteroconger hassi) are considered a difficult species to properly maintain and require a specific habitat for them to thrive. As others have mentioned, these fish do best in an aquarium that is designed with their needs in mind. A deep sand bed that utilizes a fine grain substrate is best and allows them to bury easily. If you add a large amount of substrate at once, unless you use live sand only, you might run the risk of causing an imbalance of the nitrifying bacteria which could cause a small ammonia or nitrite spike. Fine sand (with some small amounts of crushed coral or shell fragments to keep their burrows intact), which is best for this species, compacts tightly and can create anoxious or anaerobic conditions at depth and this can kill off the aerobic bacteria that already exists. Once anaerobic conditions are present, you must be cautious not to disturb this deeper layer of bacteria as exposure to oxygen could result in a rapid die-off of the anaerobic bacteria and release noxious hydrogen sulfide gas into the closed aquarium system. Basically this is just a warning to not stir up large potions of any deep sand bed in an establish aquarium system if at all possible.

Another problem that you might face with keeping this species, is its typical method of feeding. Garden eels congregate in large groups and orient themselves to face towards the prevalent currents that bring their food to them. The are planktivorous fish and they feed on large quantities of tiny floating organisms. They can be conditioned to take small frozen and live foods in some cases or they are likely to slowly starve. Enriched brine shrimp, live brine shrimp, mysis shrimp, small glass shrimp are a few of the available options for food for this species.

It is possible that your fish has not fully acclimated to your tank and this is why it has yet to bury itself. Is there live rock available for the eel to hid under for the short term? How deep is your substrate layer? They recommend having 18 inches of substrate, although I have seen some individuals successfully keep this species in shallower depths, ie 8-12 inches of substrate. They bottom line is that you have purchase a species that is best left for public aquariums, experts, or for a species tank set up specifically for this fish. I am not trying to discourage you though, i just wanted to inform you of the reality of keeping difficult species in a home aquarium. I wish you the best of luck with your tank.

What size of grain is the sand and is it a foot and a half deep? How is your current?

Too often someone buys these difficult eels on impulse and do not have the means to properly house them.

Oh, and are you sure it is a sand eel? I knew one lady that thought she had a sand eel and it was an engineer goby LOL

SUNFISH and hammer head. whilst ever I do to the Monterey bay aquarium I would desire to ascertain the sunfish he's my regularly occurring. they are purely so vast and loopy looking. i like whilst he swims via you watching each physique with that great eye that's the ultimate. I purely love the sunfish. he's the style of coach off on the aquarium. If all people of you're ever in Nor Cal bypass to the Monterey bay aquarium you purely isn't disillusioned.

You need to make your sand thicker