View Full Version : need help for my freshwater moray eel...
hi guys, i just acquired a freshwater moray eel. ive noticed that it is not eating for a couple of days. just want to ask how to feed it and what food should i give? im so worried....
thanks in advance....
Fabio's Dad
05-13-2006, 6:43 PM
Hey you should post some pics!!
Don't worry about it's eating. Sometimes, when you bring a moray home, it won't eat from two weeks to even three months. Other times it'll eat the same day you buy it. When I bought my "Freshwater", I think he went about two months. I just got impatient, so I bouht him a couple of feeders just to get him going. Now, I feed him shrimp from the store.
Do you know the whole freshwater/brachishwater/saltwater deal with freshwater morays? There are a few missunderstandings around the subject. Especialy when a store just wants to sell it.
Hey you should post some pics!!
Don't worry about it's eating. Sometimes, when you bring a moray home, it won't eat from two weeks to even three months. Other times it'll eat the same day you buy it. When I bought my "Freshwater", I think he went about two months. I just got impatient, so I bouht him a couple of feeders just to get him going. Now, I feed him shrimp from the store.
Do you know the whole freshwater/brachishwater/saltwater deal with freshwater morays? There are a few missunderstandings around the subject. Especialy when a store just wants to sell it.
thanks for the info Fabio's Dad!!!
ill post some pics later. try to borrow a cam from my friends...
honestly, its my first time to have a freshwater moray eel and i dont have any idea how to take care of it. until i read some articles, i discovered that it is a brackish fish. youre right, i think the LFS just wants to sell it. he even told me that they feed it with pellets, in which i doubted. thats why i am asking for your help and advices...
aside from the shrimp from store and feeders, what could i feed it? should it accept beefheart?
Fabio's Dad
05-13-2006, 10:29 PM
I've never gotten my eels to eat the beef heart, but I haven't tried that hard. They like silversides, too. I fed Fabio, my green moray silversides. He would eat a 16oz bag in 3 feedings!!!! I'm really not too comfortable with feeding any of my fish store feeders anymore. They might carry some disease or bacteria.
As far as 'freshwater eels' go, they're usually born in freshwater and sometimes get food in freshwater. This happens to be when they get caught. My Gymnothorax Tile is thriving in full marine water. When I bought him he was sold to me as a freshwater snowflake eel. I gradually aclimated him to salt. Although, I've heard of them being tossed right into saltwater from fresh with no problem.
hi Fabio's Dad!!! its me again....
sorry coz i dont have any pics of my eel yet...
thanks for the info again. i have another question, how do you feed your eel? do you have to handfeed it or by just dropping the food inside the tank? ive read an article that eels have poor eyesight and they hunt by smelling, is that true? at this time, my eel is doing fine with my 2 senegalus, 3 tinfoil bards and a silver dollar. and this morning i made a rock formation for my eel to hide in and to avoid stress. so, what do i have to do to feed it? thanks again.....
which moray is it? Gymnothorax tile?
WyldFya
05-15-2006, 6:22 PM
I would use one of two methods for feeding it. One method is using a clear rigid tubing, and place it in the water down near the eels face. Put whatever you are feeding him in the tube and let it fall right in front of his face. Method two is a feeding prong. Both Fabio's dad and I use these.
which moray is it? Gymnothorax tile?
i dont know actually what kind of freshwater moray eel it is coz its my first time to have it. it has a light brown coloration with flake-like spots...
I would use one of two methods for feeding it. One method is using a clear rigid tubing, and place it in the water down near the eels face. Put whatever you are feeding him in the tube and let it fall right in front of his face. Method two is a feeding prong. Both Fabio's dad and I use these.
thanks Wyldfya....i'll try both methods.
have u tried beefheart for ur eel?
WyldFya
05-15-2006, 9:15 PM
I used that method only on fire eels. They can actually be trained to come up the tube when it is put in the water. And I did use beefheart for them.
WyldFya
05-15-2006, 9:17 PM
i dont know actually what kind of freshwater moray eel it is coz its my first time to have it. it has a light brown coloration with flake-like spots...
This is a Gymnothorax Tile, this is the most common eel sold under "Freshwater moray".
thanks Wyldfya for that sample pic of Gymnothorax Tile....
my eel looks like that. the only difference is the light brown coloration. is that normal? or the color will be darker as my eel matures?
Fabio's Dad
05-18-2006, 1:06 PM
They can vary in shade, but if it's a lot lighter, it may be stressed. When Carl, my tile, gets stressed, he can turn a very light tan. You can train the tile to handfeed because it's so small. However, you're asking for trouble if you hand feed a bigger eel. It happens plenty, but it's just not worth it to me. Between their poor eyesight and possible aggressiveness, the odds suck just enough to respect my fingers. They can give nasty bites with teeth that are pointed back, to hold food in, that you can either break or have to open the eel's mouth to get your hand out. A bite from an eel can, and often does, create a very aggresive infection that can cause loss of limbs or even death if untreated. So there's your weights to balance. Remember, an eel can go months without eating. A mistake I have made, is trying too often to get new my eel to eat and actually making it not want to eat because I wasn't giving him enough space of his own.
warren126
05-18-2006, 1:13 PM
just want to know how large does the freshwater eel gets
Tongue33
05-18-2006, 3:11 PM
I have a 16" one.. He eats feeders from the lfs for 4 years now... Me and my buddy just picked one up the other day adn he is 20" and 1" thick!!
They lighten up when they have drastic changes in environment. I went from large gravel to off white sand a month ago and my Ell went to and off white for 3 weeks bfore going back to original color...I like it especially when he gets one of the fish the oscar was suppose to eat and can only tear it's head off right infront of me!!
I have fed: shimp&feeders..
albinomoray
05-18-2006, 8:11 PM
I bought an albino Moray and he was eating almost right away. I fed him live ghost shrimp. I knew about it nneding to have some salt in the water and for long term keeping it will need to be in brackish water at some point. Maybe size has something to do with things also. Mine is around 12-16 inches so I am unable to tell his species being albino.