No problem. I do think you may be overloading your system with too many eels. I would try cutting that number in half. You definitely need super good aeration to keep that many eels happy and healthy.

For quick trips with up to 50 eels I will use my live well, but just fill it with .5 inch to 1 inch of water. The eels slide around in the live well, nice and moist, but gulp air. This way I don’t have to worry about keeping the water oxygenated.

When I get home I deposit any eels I did not use into my large 55 gallon (could actually be a bit more than that) tank. I keep 2 aerators running on this tank at all times, and change the water every few days. Max capacity is 100 eels, however I like to keep it well under that.

Hope that helps and gluck!

Ryan

The cooler I’ve used is probably a 50gal. and I have two or three aerators in there. I think that I’m overloading the system because there may be as many as 150 eels in there at the start of a trip. What would you think the max. is for that setup?

For a quick trip I want to try this with a 5 gal. bucket and an aerator. How may snakes do you think will be comfortable in there?

Matt

I think to be safe (like if you were going to leave for vacation) keeping the eels in a large aerated tank would be best. I kept around 8 pounds of eels alive last fall for well over one month in a large aerated tank – had to change the water at least once per week. I’d say the tank holds around 55 gallons of water.

When I used to store the eels in an inch of water, I would also include aeration. So I’d have the bubbles going 24/7, but only fill the tank with a half inch to an inch of water – just to keep them wet. The eels would take a gulp of air while also hanging out around the bubbles – they seemed happy.

I’d still change the water every day or so, depending on how many eels are in the tank. They seemed to last pretty well using this method.

Something worth trying at the least. It seems like you are putting in a lot of energy to keep your snakes alive and kicking.

How big is the cooler you are using, and how many eels do you normally have in there?

Thanks!