fire eel feeding

[chris_1127]

i'm having a bit of trouble with my small (6") fire eel at the moment - its only really taking bloodworms at present, but as it shares a tank with tiger barbs its a bit of a free for all when it comes to feeding time. Ive tried allsorts - putting the bloodworms down a tube in front of it, distracting the barbs by feeding them at the other end of the tank, feeding in the dark, but the only way i've had any success is hand feeding it frozen cubes. this works to a point until the barbs all arrive and the eel shys away from all the commotion.
The eel wont take small shrimp, beefheart or daphnia at the moment either, any ideas for either other foods to try, or a bette way of ensuring he gets enough?

 

[mellowserra]

There is probably a better way that I haven't tried, but maybe you could put a divider in the tank just during feedings? Eels have big appetites when they get started feeding well, it won't take him long to catch on to getting the food quick. It's important to make sure he is getting enough food from the get go. Being so fast (and nippy), tiger barbs may not be the best tankmates. Is there any decoration/wood that the eel can go completely under where the tiger barbs wont? Then you could feed him under that, but you still want to be sure he is getting the food.

It can be difficult to get eels to accept frozen foods, mine will take only live. I feed him blackworms, gut loaded ghost shrimp, guppy/mollie fry, and the occasional mealworm. When they get bigger, you can feed chopped earthworm.

 

[rixy]

get your eel on the earthworms.mine only eats them and nothing else.hopefully,the worms will be too big for the barbs to eat.

 

[chris_1127]

Is there any decoration/wood that the eel can go completely under where the tiger barbs wont? Then you could feed him under that, but you still want to be sure he is getting the food.

yeah he has a couple of bits of bogwood that he disappears under, but getting even the frozen cube past the barbs without them noticing, or without scaring the eel away is a bit difficult

get your eel on the earthworms.mine only eats them and nothing else.hopefully,the worms will be too big for the barbs to eat.

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righty ho will give this a try. do you clean the earthworms or anything before you feed them ?

 

[Dangerousdan]

Dont worry, the eel will have the last laugh when hes doubled in size and eating the barbs

 

[Paul_MTS]

try using a tube to drop food directly down in front of him, just defrost some bloodworm in a net then drop it down the tube.

when using earthworms, just give them a rinse under some water then chuck them in, chop them down to size if needed.

 

[rixy]

how long have you had the eel???

 

[chris_1127]

yeah i tried the tube trick, defrosted a cube in an eggcup and poured it down the tube but it wasnt long before the barbs spotted what was going on.

Had the eel for about a month now. i saw the ones left in the shop from the batch that he came from the other day - encouragingly mine does look a lot fatter than those still in the shop so i dont think its starving anyway. Gonna go on an earthworm hunt this weekend

and yup, i reckon the barbs will be in for a shock in a year or twos time when hes grown a bit - shouldnt think they will be so much of a problem to the eel then!!

 

[chris_1127]

update - hand feeding was going ok until my 3" severum discovered what was going on. two nights in a row now he has swiped pretty much a whole frozen bloodworm cube from my hands

 

[Juno]

i have 4 eels at the moment a 55cm (almost 2 foot) fire eel, 40cm tyre track eel, a 10cm tyre track eel and a 24cm zebra spiny.
they all started out eating bloodworm which was a bit of a problem initially, however what i have found to work best is to get them to eat out of your hand. defrost some bloodworm and take it in your hand slowly put your hand in the tank and move towards the eel. be carefull not to get too close you do not want to scare it. let go of the bloodworm so the eel gets used to the fact that your hand delivers the food. if you can try and set it up so that when you release the food from your hand the current in the tank takes the bloodworm closer to the eel. it takes a week or three but once it associates your hand with food it bcomes easy to feed them.
eels like to get their bloodworm defrosted especially when they are young because they suck up their food like we eat spaghetti. they tend to struglle a bit with frozen foods when still frozen. i use hikari bloodworm.
i've used this method without any problems on all my eels. i start them off on bloodworm, then they go to earthworms when they are big enough and then when they eat moer earthworms than you can find on to ox liver cut into strips to look like big fat juicy worms.

 

[chris_1127]

yeah thats what i've been doing, holding the frozen cube in my hand and the eel breaks off the worms as they defrost. the problem is my severum (and the barbs) arent afraid of my hand now, and the severum has snatched the cube out of my hand two nights in a row

do you have any pics of your eels? they sound cool. cant wait for mine to grow a bit

 

[Paul_MTS]

it might sound mean but nudge the other fish out the way if they come near, i'ved had to do this to my oscar before when i was handfeeding my ray. although if the spooks the ray I don't really want the ray turning on me and stabbing me with his stionger so the oscar gets a flick instead.

it won't hurt them, just nudge them away and they will soon be afraid of your hand.

 

[smooth_bourbon]

Had the same problem with my Eel when I got him last year. Dempsy stole anything frozen and the cory cats went crazy for the live tubiflex worms which scared the poor Eel away. I took to putting food directly into his tube with him, including small feeder fish on occasion. Like everyone has mentioned he will settle in and get the taste for a good meal, and you wont be able to keep the food away from him. Mine gets two large earthworms every couple days now, on occasion the dempsey snags them, but never gets far before the Eel grabs the other end of the worm.

 

[SherriSixxx]

Sorry for my beginners stupidity, but is it ok to dig the worms from my garden for the eels? Or might they have some nasty bacteria that's bad for the eel?

 

[smooth_bourbon]

I have heard they can have diseases. That in mind we use no chemicals in our gardens, and I rinse the worms well.(I have heard if you keep them out of the soil for a couple days it gives them a chance to clean out their systems(poop out all the dirt))

This time of year I buy mine since its realy more of a pain then its worth digging them up, but in the winter I feed them straight out of my garden and my Eel (knock on wood) is perfectly healthy and growing like mad.