Where is the color in my fire eel?

[lazarus9]

Hi.

I have had a Fire Eel, “Teto,” for a few months now. He seems very active and social, especially when the lights are dimmed. Teto will dance with your finger if you press it and make an “S” shape with it.

Anyhow, I was wondering if there is a specific type of diet I should give him. His coloring seems a bight light compared to other specimens that I have seen with their dark coloring and the pronounced red line. He currently eats frozen blood worms. Is it because he I still a juvenile (he is around 7”)? Or is he color challenged? Would appreciate any info or advice.

_Lazarus 9

[Euge]

some fish change colour depending on their mood. The way I use to try bring out more colours in a fish is to have a a varied diet. You already said that your fire eel is active and social so it must be happy in its surroundings.

[matty]

Agreed. Bloodworm is not very nutritious when fed as a staple food. Try shrimp, mussel and small white fish like lance fish or whitebait. I would also chuck in some floating plants if you don't have any already. :)

[Brian C]

How do you get a fire-eel to eat anything else than bloodworms, mine refuse all other kind of food, except small newborn fish?

[Hakon]

My eel changes colors now and then. I think it's just natural.
When I got min I fed him with live bloodworms, and after that he has eaten everything.

[matty]

How do you get a fire-eel to eat anything else than bloodworms, mine refuse all other kind of food, except small newborn fish?

Starve it until iit takes the other food :thumbsup: Forgot to ask, what substrate do you have lazarus9?

[guppy]

Try small earthworms, live glass shrimp or fairy shrimp, or scuds for variety in the diet, also small bits of shrimp and clams mixed with the worms will probably get eaten, Something else to remember is that different blood lones can be more or less colorful even though they are the same species.

[hewhorunswithscissors]

How do you get a fire-eel to eat anything else than bloodworms, mine refuse all other kind of food, except small newborn fish?

My eel was my ONLY fish that I could not ween off of live. Even my acestrorhyncus eats smelt. But my eel would not even eat frozen bloodworms. But after almost one year, suddenly this week he decided he LOVES market prawn, frozen bloodworms, pieces of smelt, pellets.. ANYTHING. he goes crazy for it. So weird, not sure why he had the sudden change of heart.

Try some live ghost shrimp and then starve for a few days and try small pieces of market shrimp.

[lazarus9]

For substrate I am using small size pebbles (rounded). There is also asian drift wood and a couple of amazon swords.

[matty]

If you can try changing it for sand. Fire eels love to dig and burrow in the substrate :)

[lazarus9]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[Vetteacher]

Sorry to be late to the party, but I just registered and was looking to see if anyone else had fire eels. And, (insert trumpets and halleluahs here), there's a bunch of you that know about them. Just found this site

http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/universal-viewid371.html

according to this, juveniles will keep the lighter yellow markings until they mature and then they will turn red. This might be the difference you are seeing. Just a thought.

About feeding, I think you can't go wrong with a variety. Mine started off on feeders and blackworms. We just decreased the amount of those they got and offered a rotating selection of options until they picked a few they liked. Then we used those as the staple foods and kept introducing new things and expanding their "preferred" foods. Now, ~1 1/2 years later they will eat just about anything we offer off of a lid (the boyfriend refuses to let me train them to hand feeding, so they won't eat the hand when they get big enough - yet he's not afraid of his oscars that are full grown, go figure).

Anyway, just my input. I look forward to having others around that actually have these guys.

Cathey

[Honda12]

I think that it just depends on the particular eel. I have seen soemthat are very colorful and some that are jet black.

[lazarus9]

Thanks Cathey and Honda for the info. I have also noted that depending on his level of excitment he changes color. But I think the issue here is that he is still a juvenile at 8"
I will keep on observing any changes.

Is there any literature that refers to background or water conditions affecting their coloring as well?

[mudskipper]

black sand and live ghost shrimp bring out its red