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Dang, I’ll try to figure the video out tomorrow, the eel is about a foot long, I either feed him clams on a half shell, or pieces of shrimp. He tends to eat both but sometime he will stop eating one and I’ll swap over to the other. I’ve had him for about a year or so. My tank is pretty old, I’d say early 2000s but was re-siliconed a while back. I removed all the sand/moved the rocks 4 days ago. He’s been on hunger strike for about a week, sometime he will wrestle with the food but not eat it. It’s hard to tell if he looks bloated, I’d probably say no. As for other symptoms, a while back he was twitching his head to the side every once in a while. I read that it may have been sand in his gills aggravating him, or that he had some sort of infection, I was able to get my hands on the proper medicine for it and that seems to have gone away. Thanks for the reply!
Agreed - this could be normal behavior; video or pics would help to say for sure.
As mentioned, you can try squid - I've heard some eels tend to really go for squid. Live food (such as live ghost shrimp or fiddler crabs) is also a good, last resort option to try and get it feeding again.
Here's 3 of my most comprehensive threads on feeding lionfish and other predators.
Lion King's dead food recommendations
I'm a health nut if you haven't noticed, this also translates to my pets. Today I will cover some of the dead foods I feed and why, with some nutritional info that I recall off the top of my head. This is by no means all the foods you can feed, these are just the ones I include in my feedings...www.reef2reef.com
The truth about FATS
I remember one the first things I learned about fish when I started this hobby; was the differences in carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores. Lions, eels, anglers, etc. are carnivores, among many other species. Carnivores need a dominant protein and fat diet with minimal carbs. Frankly I'm a bit...Live Food
Ghosties, guppies, and mollies, oh my. These are the best, most available, safest, and nutritional choices to feed your predator. If you have a fish you have decided the inclusion of a live in beneficial or even necessary, these are the best options to feed. I can not recommend no other species...
www.reef2reef.com
What medication was it?
Hey thanks for the reply, I’ll try the squid, and maybe grab some full shrimp if I can find it. I never knew they would potentially eat algae, I don’t have any way to get the pellets other than ordering them online(only one salt water fish store in my town) but I’ll look into it.Agreed - this could be normal behavior; video or pics would help to say for sure.
As mentioned, you can try squid - I've heard some eels tend to really go for squid. Live food (such as live ghost shrimp or fiddler crabs) is also a good, last resort option to try and get it feeding again.
How often do you feed it? Would you say it eats more of the shrimp, more of the clams, or pretty even portions of both?
With regards to the long-term diet, I'd suggest adding a good, fatty fish like salmon (the gold-standard) or mackerel (a good, second place), squid is a good one to add, crabs too if you can do so without breaking the bank, and then I'd also add in some algae (preferably multiple types) to get a few more vitamins and minerals in there that might not be supplied by the meat.
With all the foods, the fresher the better, and the more intact the shrimp is (head, tail, shell, etc.) the better. Ulva, Halymenia, and Nori would be my first suggestions for algae to add, but others like Porphyra and Spirulina would be good too. I doubt the eel would eat the algae by itself, so supplementing it either with algae pellets (such as NLS Marine Fish Pellets), an algal gelatin feed, or through something like wrapping the meat in the algae would be my suggestion.
For more diet suggestions/info, I'd suggest reading through lion king's threads below:
Eel Prepper
Eels and lions have alot in common; I have seen many posts lately concerning eels, so I thought I would pass on some information that I have learned over the years. !st off, know your source, do not get an eel from a source that runs copper in their system. Eels have sensitivity to copper...
What medication was it?
The medication I used was mixed in with their food. It was called paracleanse.Agreed - this could be normal behavior; video or pics would help to say for sure.
As mentioned, you can try squid - I've heard some eels tend to really go for squid. Live food (such as live ghost shrimp or fiddler crabs) is also a good, last resort option to try and get it feeding again.
How often do you feed it? Would you say it eats more of the shrimp, more of the clams, or pretty even portions of both?
With regards to the long-term diet, I'd suggest adding a good, fatty fish like salmon (the gold-standard) or mackerel (a good, second place), squid is a good one to add, crabs too if you can do so without breaking the bank, and then I'd also add in some algae (preferably multiple types) to get a few more vitamins and minerals in there that might not be supplied by the meat.
With all the foods, the fresher the better, and the more intact the shrimp is (head, tail, shell, etc.) the better. Ulva, Halymenia, and Nori would be my first suggestions for algae to add, but others like Porphyra and Spirulina would be good too. I doubt the eel would eat the algae by itself, so supplementing it either with algae pellets (such as NLS Marine Fish Pellets), an algal gelatin feed, or through something like wrapping the meat in the algae would be my suggestion.
For more diet suggestions/info, I'd suggest reading through lion king's threads below:
Eel Prepper
Eels and lions have alot in common; I have seen many posts lately concerning eels, so I thought I would pass on some information that I have learned over the years. !st off, know your source, do not get an eel from a source that runs copper in their system. Eels have sensitivity to copper...
What medication was it?
Predators typically get their "vegetables" (like algae) from their prey - when they eat the herbivores, they eat the vegetables in the prey's organs too.
This is probably too often, especially if the eel is larger. Depending on the size, anywhere from once every 3 days to once every 7 days (but more likely 5) may be appropriate.
Ok thanks for the tips, I was able to get some squid picked up, tried it but he still didn’t eat. Guess I’ll just give it a go again tomorrow. I’ll have to look into the algae idea, I could definitely add it into the food I’m already feeding him if I get my hands on some.
Hmm. That's not good - eels have been known to go on hunger strikes for a few days/a couple of weeks at a time, but the heavy breathing and not moving much is a bad sign.Update: been a few days, still hasn’t eaten I don’t believe. He was hiding out in his rock for a while, finally came out for a bit then I found him like this. Breathing fairly heavily and not moving much for the past while. I read up on eels in this state being potentially deficient in nutrients/vitamins, and/or because of high nitrates. My current water is sitting at 1.024 salinity, no ammonia, quite a bit of nitrate that I’m still dealing with, currently doing another water change right now. Other than that had the rest of my levels checked at local aquarium shop, everything came back good.
