EEL owners I need help.

[jasno999]

EEL owners I need help.

I have a zig zag eel and I need help in feeding him. How do you guys and girls go about feeding your eels? What do you feed them and how do you do it.


I know they like live food but I have problems gettign live worms to the eel. When I drop them in the tank they gid themselves into my course gravel. How can I get it so that the worm is not able to escape into the rocky gravel yet give the eel tiem to see it movign so it eats it?

 

[CFC]

The best way to feed small spiney eels is to use a syringe or turkey baster to squirt bloodworms directly at the fish.

 

[jasno999]

Interesting but how do you get that down to the bottom of a 30gall tank that has plants and decorations in it?

 

[Paul_MTS]

with difficulty!!

sorry couldn't help myself.

IN my old coldwater fry tank i had a glass jar in there that i put the live food in and the fish would go in there and munch it all.

 

[jasno999]

a glass jar? Ok I understand but woudl you lay it on its side or stand it up? If it is stood up I don't see the eel swiming to the top of it to get in. if it is on its side the worm will probably wiggle out.


Other issue I have is the other fish liek to bite the worm. They do nto eat it but they move it all around.

 

[Paul_MTS]

Just lay it on it's side and make it so the bottom end is pushed into the substarte a bit leaving the opening pointing up a bit, depends on the jars neck depends on how much angle you need, but my live food never wiggled out.

 

[FishDan]

I don't have any problems feeding my zig-zag eel. At least after the first week or so. He was very shy at first and didn't eat much (that I noticed), but now he is a voracious eater, he goes nuts over frozen bloodworms and especially live blackworms. Another thing to consider, as that eels are primarily nocturnal feeders, if you are feeding during the day or with your lights on, it may take a while for the eel to get used to eating at this time. Try dimming the lights and feeding him, or feed him just before lights out so that he gets used to food in the light.

\Dan

 

[jasno999]

Thanks everybody. I hope that he will get used to daytime feedings. I guess I will try the red wilggelers that I have and see if he eats those. Then I will use frozen blood worms.

I am goign to look into earthworms.

 

[Oddball]

Eels arent usually fussy eaters! try gripping the worm in a pair of clean forceps and manouvering it towards the eels mouth, that should do the trick

 

[jasno999]

How often do eels eat and how much do they eat?

1 worm a day (earth or red wiggler worm)

1 every 2 or 3 days. Give me an idea.

 

[samsung-401]

You could try earthworms, my spiney likes them. I have never seen the burry into the gravle. Other then that you could try raising some brine shrimp and feeding them to him.

 

[jasno999]

To my total amazment yesterday I foudn that the eel had borroed himself into the gravle in my tank. Now we are not talkign about fine or light gravel here. W are talkign about rock like gravel. I have no idea how he got under it but he did. Now I have no idea when he will come out again but hopefully he is huntign down those dam worms.

 

[FishDan]

This is normal behavior. They will often burrow in whatever substrate you have. It is best to house them with sandy substrate, as they are scaleless and are more easily wounded by potential sharp gravel. If your gravel has rounded edges, I wouldn't worry. Otherwise small wounds can become infected, and that can be trouble.

As far as feeding, any time I put food in my tank (so long as it is a frozen food, especially bloodworms) my eel eats. I am trying feedings every other day for a while, so he (and the rest of my fish) eat every other day. I doubt any of my fish need to be fed this often the eel can (and probably does, in the wild) go for longer periods of time without food. Try every couple, three days and see how that goes.

\Dan

 

[Oddball]

I agree with Dan, in my case i currently feed my eel one perhaps two (depends on how responsive it is) lance fish every other day. As he/she hand feeds and responds readily to the scent of the fish by coming out of its hole/burrow i am left in no doubt that its fed. My eel has created a number of "runs" by digging through the coral gravel and leaving tunnels there, it actively uses these to pursue guppies/small algae eating loaches when i feed live foods....

 

[boom-sage]

I usually just dump my bloodworms in the tank with waterand the eel goes and finds them on the ground. try not to bang around while feeding or fish will get scared.