Feeding a snowflake eel

SaltedReefer · Jul 20, 2014

So I'm in the market for a snowflake eel and have a few questions about feeding them. If I go the frozen route should I strictly feed frozen And no live food. Also if I choose to feed live will he pose more of a threat to his tank mates? Or will he be able to distinguish between his normal tank mates and food? Will live food made him more agressive? Can I feed him a majority frozen then say a few guppies every now and then ( not on a regular basis I know it's not great for them) but just say once or twice a month. Please fill me in here! How do you guys feed your eels?

tyler1503 · Jul 20, 2014

He may be more of a threat to tankmates if you feed live foods. He will learn that he has to go looking for food and has to kill in order to eat. If you feed him frozen foods he will learn that you will bring him food and he won't have to hunt. A hungry snowflake eel that's use to hunting won't think twice about that cute little clownfish unless he knows you'll bring him a meal. However the hunting instinct may never fully go away and he may still chase tank mates a bit. Mine had been purely on prepared foods for quite a while now and still chases my puffer around the tank every so often. Once he realises that it's the puffer he's chasing and not me feeding him he settles down.
I go to the supermarket and pick up 2 squid rings, the kind you would crumb to make calamari rings. I wash them really well and cut them into pieces about 1.5-2 cm long and use tweezers to feed him. He normally eats just over 1.5 of the squid rings depending on the size. In the wild they're generally a crustacean and cephelapod eater, so the best prepared meal would be fresh shrimp, squid or on occasion some octopus. Mine eats just about anything though, he even tries to eat flake food but doesn't have much success lol.

duromega · Jul 20, 2014

They are predators what ever you feed they will go for the hunt

tyler1503 · Jul 20, 2014

Oh, and I wouldn't feed freshwater fish, especially guppies (they're very fatty along with goldfish). Live shrimp would be best if you really wana feed live foods. If you live near the ocean go into the shallows of a lake or something and run a net through some seaweed. You should find lots of shrimp and crabs and stuff to feed.
It's a good idea to always have a spare tank laying around (like 2.5 gallons. It doesn't have to be big. Even a bucket will work). That way you can keep live food separate from the eel and you can gut load them with a high quality food before feeding them to the eel

tyler1503 · Jul 20, 2014

duromega said:
They are predators what ever you feed they will go for the hunt

If fed purely prepared foods they will learn that they're next meal is coming and in most cases that's enough to suppress that hunting instinct. They're pretty intelligent little guys.

duromega · Jul 20, 2014

tyler1503 said:
If fed purely prepared foods they will learn that they're next meal is coming and in most cases that's enough to suppress that hunting instinct. They're pretty intelligent little guys.

How often do you feed yours ?

tyler1503 · Jul 20, 2014

2 or 3 times a week normally. I don't stress if I miss a day though. In the wild they can go weeks or months without eating.
Also, they grow according to how much food they get. More food = more growth. If you limit feeding they won't grow very big meaning they're less likely to see smaller fish as a potential meal, but less feeding can lead to more aggression.
It's all about finding that balance when it comes to feeding eels.

SaltedReefer · Jul 20, 2014

Yeah, I think I'll definatley stick to feeding frozen then! Thanks for all the information! I'm thinking of going tk the store and just getting a big variety of fish, shrimp,squid, octopus, crab, and stuff like that so that he never eats the same things twice in a week..(that's how I feed my reef tank).

SaltedReefer · Jul 20, 2014

Will feeding live shrimp opposed to live fish have the same aggression issues? Like
With hunting and all?

miyags · Jul 20, 2014

I fed my eel frozen squid cut in strips about a 1/4in.x 3in long

tyler1503 · Jul 20, 2014

No worries

Frozen is the safest way with all large predators from my experience. Especially the ambush predators. It's possible he will still feel the need to hunt small fish when being fed live shrimp as the hunting instinct wouldn't be completely suppressed, but in reality he SHOULD learn that it's the shrimp that is food, not small fish. I used to feed my snowflake live shrimp and like I said before can still chase small fish a bit, but doesn't do any real harm.
If you buy food from the supermarket or wherever your planning to get it from, read the ingredients list first and make sure it is just frozen seafood without any additives. Also make sure it's raw seafood and not precooked and wash it really really well

kkgaskin90 · Jul 20, 2014

We feed ours frozen and Only from a certain set of long tweezers. He has learned that when the light moves and that side of the tank opens, he is getting fed and comes to the same spot. Didn't take long for him to figure out. We feed him every other day to every 3 days, depending on how "active" he looks. If he gets hungry he will go tipping over snails and hermits. He has chased fish, but only to tell them to get away from his tweezers during dinner time. I thought I would hate him (hubby got him) but he's actually pretty neat. He did go exploring once and ended up in the sump, but other than that he's been a model citizen

my daughter (3) likes to play "where is snowflake" and find his hiding spot.

tyler1503 · Jul 21, 2014

kkgaskin90 said:
We feed ours frozen and Only from a certain set of long tweezers. He has learned that when the light moves and that side of the tank opens, he is getting fed and comes to the same spot. Didn't take long for him to figure out. We feed him every other day to every 3 days, depending on how "active" he looks. If he gets hungry he will go tipping over snails and hermits. He has chased fish, but only to tell them to get away from his tweezers during dinner time. I thought I would hate him (hubby got him) but he's actually pretty neat. He did go exploring once and ended up in the sump, but other than that he's been a model citizen my daughter (3) likes to play "where is snowflake" and find his hiding spot.

They definitely get a lot more active when hungry. I almost never see mine unless he's ready to eat. He's learnt about my feeding tweezers too, he swims right to the surface when he sees them.
Mine went exploring on the carpet once. I got him back in the tank by him latching onto my finger and picking him up by his teeth....ouch!

SaltedReefer · Jul 21, 2014

Does a bite hurt that bad?

kkgaskin90 · Jul 21, 2014

tyler1503 said:
They definitely get a lot more active when hungry. I almost never see mine unless he's ready to eat. He's learnt about my feeding tweezers too, he swims right to the surface when he sees them.
Mine went exploring on the carpet once. I got him back in the tank by him latching onto my finger and picking him up by his teeth....ouch!

Oh, ouch! No thanks! I'm too much of a chicken to get my hands close to ours. He's still fairly small (12-14") but every time that mouth opens I have flashes of the video of a Moray taking off a diver's finger. Nope nope nope.

tyler1503 · Jul 21, 2014

Nah it's not a bad as you'd think. It's as scary as hell and it gets the adrenalin going though haha. It's not as painful as it is as much of a shock. My little fella barely got me though, I had 3 or 4 scratches along my finger that went pretty deep. It's a similar pain to bad cut while shaving. He was about 16" at the time. He's calmed down a lot since then so I doubt he'd bite me now, even if he went carpet surfing again, but I don't plan on finding out though!

SaltedReefer · Jul 23, 2014

Where do you guys get your food for your eels? i know alot of people get shrimp from the deli. can i use shrimp from the frozen section? head of or head off? can i use frozen bait used for fishhing such as crabs, small fish, shrimp, and squid?

tyler1503 · Jul 23, 2014

Don't use fishing bait. It's not always fresh.
The only food I use for my eel is from the fresh seafood section at the supermarket. Wash it well and it's good to go