Sorry for double posting, but anyways I bought a snowflake its about 7-8inches and thick as a big sharpie, that wasn't eating at the store prior (I know its against better judgement but I've been reading as much as I can on feeding them and training to eat frozen and want to get my feet wet and train a fish) basically should I try feeding anything specific to entice her, I have garlic guard, and the current food i have at the moment is mysis, and squid no luck with either. Appreciate the help in advanced.
New snowflake eel not eating
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I like getting my fish eating right away, and will settle them in with live food if necessary. A snowflake will take to live ghost shrimp very easily, after you get him settled in it should be no problem to start feeding him dead. Snowflakes usually feed pretty easily, I'm surprised he wasn't eating at the lfs; that's the only reason I'd immediately go to live food to settle him in. You want to feed him chunks with a tong or stick, you weren't hoping he would take mysis out of the water column; they won't. They would usually go nuts over squid; shrimp, octopus, silversides, even krill.
I have a dwarf golden moray that is about the size of your snowflake. I had the hardest time getting him to eat. I tired table shrimp, scallops, oysters, cod filet... nothing worked until I found calamari. Evidently, this is what they eat in the wild and is all he will eat. I don't know that a snowflake eats squid, but find out what he does eat and try that. I think they are pebble toothed so crustaceans would be on the menu. Eels are also known for going on hunger strikes when moved to a new aquarium. Be patient and you must target feed eels.
Here's a video of the first time I got my eel to eat.
Here's a video of the first time I got my eel to eat.
I agree on getting fish to eat quickly, every single one of my fish ate either day of getting them or day after, so I want him on the schedule and nothing to worry about, I do feed with a pair of long tweezers I bought I sort of just sat a chunk of the calamari infront of his face for a good 2mins if not longer being as patient as I can. I forgot to mention it's only the 2nd day i've had him so definitely early worrying.
The frozen squid I bought has those little tentacles you think he would take more interest in that instead of the rings i cut up, just a thought. I think if he doesn't give in eating anything I can try to find for him within a week I'll resort to live food and restart but i've never dealt with live food before so I'd appreciate any info. I read that keeping them over night and gutloading day of feeding is best route, so would a big tupperware with an air pump work for a single feeding of ghost shrimp?
I haven't had any experience with ghost shrimp, but wanting to set up a frogfish tank in the next year I've been doing research. Seems all you need for ghost shrimp short term is a bucket of water and an air stone. Gut load just before feeding. They are fresh water but I've read they can survive long term in salt water.
My eel only eats the tentacles, wouldn't take the cut up tubes I tried. Is he rubbing on the food with his face or just ignoring it? Give him some time and don't panic. Eels can go a long time without eating.
My eel only eats the tentacles, wouldn't take the cut up tubes I tried. Is he rubbing on the food with his face or just ignoring it? Give him some time and don't panic. Eels can go a long time without eating.
Heres a video of him out swimming crazy
Edit: As I was posting the video I saw your post and definitely he was showing interest maybe?? Im not an eel expert of course but does opening wide when theres food near and almost started to wrap around the tweezers this morning. Patience is definitely key in this hobby.
Mine does the same at night.
If he's shakes his head back and forth really hard, he's smelling. If he's rubbing his head on the food, he's interested but not hungry or hungry but not interested... lol. They can be quite picky at times. They are really shy creatures too, complete opposite of what you'd think in a predator, but the smaller eels are prey themselves. Even larger eels have predators, usually other eels. Just give him some time to get comfortable, make sure he has plenty of caves where he can get his whole body in and keep trying to feed every few days. He looks healthy in your video. Sharpie marker thick is a good size for an 8" eel.
I've been reading about their behavior with smell but didnt know that little bit with the rubbing good to know, for tomorrow i'll pay attention to it more. Also that tree structure in the video is very huge, has holes all around it and all his so he has a nice cozy cave, doesnt leave it during lights on. Glad he looks healthy, hoping to keep him that way! I'll keep you updated.
I just got a new phone and haven't moved all my pictures over or I could show you a few. He's quite the character. He'll let me know when he's hungry. When I fed the fish he can smell it almost instantly and he'll poke out of his cave and look like he's really excited. If he's really hungry he will come all the way out and swim around poking his head out the water until I fed him his squid. Then he goes back in his cave and I can only imagine he's taking an eel nap.
So, this is how my eel let's me know he's hungry. First he starts off by looking at me, then he goes for a swim looking for me to put food in the tank.
I love their personalities, so this morning I fed the fish and again tried to feed him but he wasn't interested at all, no rubbing against the food or shaking, but he does do the shaking thing when there is no food in the tank and last night he was definitely searching. I was thinking about it and reading more on what lion king said about feeding a live ghost shrimp to settle him in and find out food comes from me. I might try it, would he still take the live shrimp off the tweezers do you know by chance?
I would put the live in the tank and see if he goes after them... he might not be comfortable with you or the tank yet to take food off of tongs.
Ahh, yea that trigger would be a way more aggressive eater than the eel. You can try target feeding with the live, or try adding them at night when the eel hunts and the trigger is sleeping. Just be patient, it took me two weeks to get mine eating. Squid and octopus seems to be irristible for eels tho.
Hes eating!! I got some live shrimp and fed with the tongs, distracted the trigger with a big chunk of squid after the eel ate the shrimp he instantly went crazy and sniffed out the squid and ate it! Hes got a full belly now! Im super happy thank you, @Robin Haselden and @lion king for the idea!
heres a clip of him eating and the toby puffer tryin to steal it
heres a clip of him eating and the toby puffer tryin to steal it
Awesome dude. Congrats. Now that he knows where food comes from he'll start begging you when he's hungry.
Great, he should be good to go now. I feed my jeweled squid, shrimp, octopus(if you have an asian market), and smelt(which is the same as silversides but at about 10% of the price at the asian market. I feed every 3 days, all he wants to eat.
I do have an asian market, and that's exactly where I got my squid from. I figured they must have some and they had a nice selection for cheap so, definitely getting some stuff there in the future. quick question do you think a box of mussels or clams from them would be a nice variety for the fish?
they get about 2' if I'm not mistaken.
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