Fire Eel Help Appreciated

[rossce]

Hi, I am quite new to the forum,

We have a 450l tank and have a lovely 18" fire eel in it. We provided drainpipe for the eel to hide when we brought him (nearly 2 weeks ago). Prob is he hasnt seemed to have eaten yet.
Our cichlids are fed on frozen cichlid mix, blodworm, krill etc and have given enough for the eel. The shop said he was fed on mealworm so we also got these but it seems he still will not eat - our Frontosas keep picking at the worms!
We feed the cichlids first but still the eel seems uninterested. He has explored the tank once or twice but we see no action as he just lays in his pipe.
I have read previous threads on this site and you all say they take a while to come out / eat. I can't help though thinking he may die of starvation. The tank is set at a ph of 7.2 (round about) and the temp is at 26 degrees.

Any ideas - is this normal or am I doing something wrong?

Caz

 

[cane76]

welcome
large caught fire eels can be difficult to get onto dead foods
you could feed the rest of the tank on what they like first,then throw in some river shrimp or earthworm for the eel
but this way you could end up with a eel that only eats live food
my fire eel has gone a month at a time without eating when i have tried to convert him

 

[severum boy]

Do you have a turkey baster or a pipette? These are the best way of feeding eels because they stop other fish from stealing the eels food. Once the eel has worked out that bloodworm (for instance) comes out from it, it will begin to come out from its pipe when the pipette is in the water.

 

[CFC]

Try some frozen mussels, defrost them first and add them after the cichlids have eaten, very few fussy fish will refuse mussels in my experience.

 

[Straydum]

directly hand feeding the eel should work. i do that with my pair of fire eels. btw your 450l isnt enough to hold the eel forever. fire eels need around 180g which is around 900l if my conversion is correct.