His name was Diego-eel and we put guppies in his tank like the store lady told us. We also threw in a slice of pumpkin for him and the guppies to eat because the lady said to. Never listen to a Wal-Mart employee.
The next morning the water was clouded with pumpkin fiber. 50% of the guppies had choked to death...and my poor eel was dead.
I cleaned up the tank. I was not defeated. The next week I bought a baby snowflake eel and named him Diego-chibi.
For the first month he did very well, then he started to grow. My Diego-chibi, who was 10 inches when I bought him, grew to 12 inches.
His water couldn't handle an extra two inches and became rather dirty. He became lethargic and looked very pitiful indeed. I asked around and finally decided to move him into a larger tank.
The extra room in his new twenty gallon home seemed to help for awhile but he was struck down again after a span of 2 weeks.
This time I was advised that lonliness was the cause. I thought about it for awhile and then bought a ten inch snowflake eel who I named Nabiki.
Nabiki began at once to make everything better. She curled up next to Diego-chibi to sleep during the day and danced every night.
Her body was like a ribbon. She executed the most beautiful ballets with grace and flexibility. She was also extremely attractive. She was dark olive green with a complicated snowflake pattern in white covering her entire body except her underside which was pale yellow.
The bliss of Nabiki soon ended when she grew to 12 inches and their combined length became too much for the 20 gallon. I worried for abouta month but was saved when I got a 55 gallon aquarium for Christmas.
It was with much joy that I transported my eely-babes to their new home. I had done some research on snowflake eels and found out that they like crevices to hide in so I equipped their tank with three flower pots and millions of tiny hiding places between rocks and plants.
Oh how happy they were!
Nabiki increased her dancing time to 4 hours every night and I would stay up until dawn sometimes watching her.
One night in January I woke up at 5 and thought I heard a tapping noise. I ignored it. In the morning I saw what had happened. Last night my baby Nabiki had crawled out of her safe, warm tank and drowned on the floor. She had been rolling on the carpet and tapping her tail on a piece of paper.
My heart has been broken ever since and Diego-chibi is just recovering a major depression that followed her death.
Diego-chibi has taken up dancing as a way of communication. He does certain movements when he is hungry, when the tank is dirty, or if he's lonely. When he is lonely he stands up on his tail end and yawns for a long time.
