What do you feed your ribbon eel?

Tclason1 · May 25, 2021

Had mine for over a year, LFS said they fed him krill but he never touched the stuff. Got him hooked on silversides and that’s all he wants! I’ve even tried fresh mullet and sardines. Anything else I should try? He’s been happy and healthy for a year but want to vary his diet. I mean, I love in-n-out, but only that for a year...

thatmanMIKEson · May 25, 2021

that is beautiful, i just saw 3 at coral coral in olds-mar this past weekend they weren't that big i don't think, but i was thinking how sweet it would to set up a small dedicated tank for one, how do you like having it any pros and cons you have on that specie?

awesome looking tank by the way every thing is very nice along with the eel!

Tclason1 · May 25, 2021

Thanks! Love the ribbon eel, named him ‘Salazar’ (Harry Potter reference - I’m a dork).
Took me a couple weeks to figure out he only wants to eat silversides, but now he is a pig. He hangs out in his PVC/ cave under the rock structure, pokes his body out halfway and just hangs all day. Every morning when lights first come on he swims out and around the tank - like literally every morning like he’s getting his calisthenics in. He’s never eaten any of my mandarins or small fish (knock on wood). My cleaner shrimp goes for rides on his back.

I believe his pvc pipe and cave along the back of the tank, along with figuring out the silverside food thing have kept him happy and healthy.

The only con is feeding when I’m out of town. If it’s only a week I’ll feed him extra before I leave town. If it’s 2+ weeks I’ll get a buddy over to feed him at least once or twice.

Overall, amazing fish and a great tank member!

AlgaeBarn · May 25, 2021

He is gorgeous! Have you tried shrimp pieces?

Tclason1 · May 25, 2021

AlgaeBarn said:
He is gorgeous! Have you tried shrimp pieces?

Hey AlgaeBarn - thanks! I have not, but regularly buy quarts of live shrimp for bait fishing. I will have to keep and freeze some to try feeding him chunks

DeepintheReef · May 25, 2021

Almost every eel I’ve kept for myself or a customer loves shrimp. If you go that route, make sure to get shrimp that aren’t treated with any kind of phosphate preservative (so live shrimp or frozen shrimp where the package specifically says it isn’t treated with any chemicals). I also feed lots of LRS chunky as it’s a mix of several different seafood proteins.

dennis romano · May 25, 2021

I read that your cleaner shrimp likes to ride on the eel's back. If you try feeding him chunks of shrimp, and he likes it, he may look at your cleaner shrimp as another meal.

AlgaeBarn · May 26, 2021

Tclason1 said:
Hey AlgaeBarn - thanks! I have not, but regularly buy quarts of live shrimp for bait fishing. I will have to keep and freeze some to try feeding him chunks

Before you freeze I would try to get him hooked on the fresh- it is usually easier to introduce a new food that way then when you know he likes it you could introduce him to the frozen version ;Happy

Tclason1 · May 26, 2021

dennis romano said:
I read that your cleaner shrimp likes to ride on the eel's back. If you try feeding him chunks of shrimp, and he likes it, he may look at your cleaner shrimp as another meal.

That is a good question...for some reason I doubt their friendship would be strong enough to survive a shrimp diet change....

AlgaeBarn · May 26, 2021

Tclason1 said:
That is a good question...for some reason I doubt their friendship would be strong enough to survive a shrimp diet change....

I hope that doesn't happen but might be worth it to avoid that option all together then.

bg2311 · May 26, 2021

We fed ours freeze dried krill on a long wooden BBQ skewer. Snap off the harder tail to make the pieces easier for them to swallow. Ours got to about 3' before we had to re-home him. Left anything that wasn't a tiny fish alone but the Mandarin goby almost became a tasty snack. Thankfully it has since recovered.

TheDragonsReef · May 26, 2021

If only fed silversides and shrimp/krill morays tend to get thiamine deficiency so its best to inject the silversides with selcon or another vitimin supplement when you feed.

You can also feed a more varied diet but it can get expensive to keep many different foods at once. Squid/octopus is also a great part of a morays diet and i would highly recommend trying to feed some.

Tclason1 · May 26, 2021

Dragonsreef said:
If only fed silversides and shrimp/krill morays tend to get thiamine deficiency so its best to inject the silversides with selcon or another vitimin supplement when you feed.

You can also feed a more varied diet but it can get expensive to keep many different foods at once. Squid/octopus is also a great part of a morays diet and i would highly recommend trying to feed some.

Fantastic advice - thank you!