Tire Track Eel

[always4lora]

Hi' all ,

I have a tire track eel which is about 15 inch long and a good 1.5inch to 2 inch thick in a 100g . for the first month i had it it only ate garden worms out of my hand but now it's eventually started eating prawns....
I feed my fish twice a day so my rays get a good feed, however i dumped in a couple of handfuls of prawns in this morning and i counted the tiretrack eating 11 one after another , i've got in from work and put some more in and the tire track eels eaten 10 this time so 21 prawns in one day!
Is this too much for the eel at this size to eat? Don't want it to have problems. It gets an enlarged stomach like the bichir's do when they eat.

 

[nmonks]

Provided water quality doesn't plummet, there's no danger from occasionally overdoing things at feeding time. A healthy fish should have a hearty appetite, but it should only look slightly thick around the abdomen, never swollen.

Now, a bigger deal here is that while prawns are a favourite food for large Mastacembelus, you need to use them cautiously. They contain a lot of thiaminase, and frozen prawns especially are going to be vitamin B1 deficient. Use them once or twice a week, but thiaminase-rich foods like prawns and mussels should never be more than 25% the total diet.

Cheers, Neale

 

[simonas]

my fire eel was the same Ben these fish don;t know when to stop lol

my eel wouldn;t take anything else other than prawn and worms so good luck!!

any pics

 

[always4lora]

Provided water quality doesn't plummet, there's no danger from occasionally overdoing things at feeding time. A healthy fish should have a hearty appetite, but it should only look slightly thick around the abdomen, never swollen.

Now, a bigger deal here is that while prawns are a favourite food for large Mastacembelus, you need to use them cautiously. They contain a lot of thiaminase, and frozen prawns especially are going to be vitamin B1 deficient. Use them once or twice a week, but thiaminase-rich foods like prawns and mussels should never be more than 25% the total diet.

Cheers, Neale

Yeh it go's big , doesnt swell , it go's down quite fast, most have a good digestive system! It's taken me a good few months to get it to take anything but worms. Theres always Hikari Massivore in the tank but it doesnt bother with them at all, is there any good recommended foods that they tend to take better than others?

my fire eel was the same Ben these fish don;t know when to stop lol

my eel wouldn;t take anything else other than prawn and worms so good luck!!

any pics

It's one thing i havent really got pics off the eel recently! When i first got i got one of it. Will grab some more over the weekend. Sometimes the eel eats the prawns before it hits the bottom, ive seen it pretty much get under the disc of one of the rays to nick it's prawns. Real appetite!

 

[nmonks]

Spiny eels have little/no interest in dried foods, so you're stuck with fresh, wet-frozen or live foods. Earthworms are very good, as are gut-loaded river shrimp. You do need to gut-load the shrimp with Spirulina flake or similar prior to use because they contain thiaminase and will otherwise prove vitamin deficient. Do be sure to read Marco Lichtenberger's article on this issue. Marco has looked at eel health very broadly, and it does seem thiaminase is responsible for a great many cases of poor health and premature death.

Home-bred feeder fish such as mosquitofish and cichlid fry are also an option, but not really necessary or even cost-effective.

Do try things like cockles, lancefish and tilapia fillet, since these are thiaminase-free. Mussels, prawns and at least some squid types contain thiaminase so can be used but only sparingly. Getting your spiny eel hand tame will speed things up, since he'll learn to take whatever you offer.

Cheers, Neale

Yeh it go's big , doesnt swell , it go's down quite fast, most have a good digestive system! It's taken me a good few months to get it to take anything but worms. Theres always Hikari Massivore in the tank but it doesnt bother with them at all, is there any good recommended foods that they tend to take better than others?