Need Help! Fire eel not eating.

riverfishguy

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 7, 2007
79
0
0
Poplar Bluff, Missouri
I got a 7-8 inch fire eel from the LFS 3 weeks ago and as far as I can tell he hasn't eaten once. I've tried HBH super soft, Hbh Shrimp pellets, Hikari Bio Pure Bloodworms, Mysis shrimp, krill, white worms, and earthworms. He sniffs food then looks around expectantly for food. It's like he doesnt even realise it's food. It's been long enough since ive seen him eat that im getting worried.
 

Bre

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 24, 2007
804
0
0
Denver, CO
I have 3 striped peacock eels and I have NEVER seen them eat. I assume they must because I have had them for 3 months and their weight looks healthy. I feed frozen bloodworms, krill, plankton,glassworms, and brine shrimp. Maybe he does eat and you just don't see him as with mine.
 

thefishguy7

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 19, 2007
2,626
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:iagree: Yeah, it's common not to see your spiny eel eat. When it gets bigger you should see him/her a lot more.:iagree:
 

bitme4u

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Dec 30, 2007
59
0
0
36
Rocklin, Ca
:iagree: thats very true i have never seen my tire track eel eat either but hes growing so i know he does
 

ShadowBass

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 13, 2007
2,322
6
0
Poplar Bluff, MO
You guys don't understand, this fire eel is NOT eating. It's not that we don't see him eat, the food goes untouched no matter how long it is in the tank.

Just from the fact that he seems to be losing condition leads me to believe that he hasn't picked up one bit of food.
 

killerfish

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jan 30, 2007
6,067
5
62
colorado
hmmm check your water
are there other fish in the tank ?
what kind of tank planted, drift wood , rocks ?


my fire eel would eat blood worms out of my hand so i saw him eat for sure however i lost my peacock spiny eel a little while a go i finally got him to eat some worms but it was to late he was to weak to eat any more he died on top of his food very sad poor thing it was soooo skinny i feel really bad for that poor guy
 

ShadowBass

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 13, 2007
2,322
6
0
Poplar Bluff, MO
The water is fine.
The tank he's in now (for about 3 days) is with our baby clown loaches and dats and some others (various juvenile fish other than a few platies and my angelfish) in our 75g inhopes that they'd get him eating plus the water quality is kept pretty perfect. That tank gets a ton of feeding of small foods daily because of the baby loaches.
The parameters on that tank are no1=0, no2=0 and nitrates=5. The pH is consistently 7.4. The TDS is around 160. I would be surprised if anything else is wrong with it since there's clown loaches in there, a SA leaf fish and some other fairly sensitive fish and they're doing great.
It's aquascaped with some mopani wood and pvc and plastic decorations.

Up until a few days ago he was in with our arowana and clown knife in a 125g. We don't test the water as much in there since it's only those two fish plus the fire eel at one time, but the pH is the same (that's what it comes out at in the tap and with all our tapwaters buffering it doesn't vary) and the nitrates are always below about 20. Obviously no ammonia or nitrites.
In that tank there was absolutely no competition for food because our clown knife only eats beef heart and the arow eats pellets + krill and sometimes steals some of the knifes beef heart but hates everything else.
That tank isn't really aquascaped, it just has a bunch of pvc for the clown to hide in and also the fire eel when he was in there. The arow doesn't exactly use decorations and the tank is temporary anyway, lol.

The only similarities between the tanks is that they're barebottom so we're thinking about moving him into sandbottom pretty soon to see if he'll be more comfortable maybe and try to eat. I doubt it will do much since he has plenty of hiding spots either way, but I guess it's worth a try. I'm not very optimistic since we had a peacock eel at one time that was in a tank with sand, no food competition, perfect conditions and it didn't want to eat either no matter what we tried. At least this fire eel is bigger and has a bigger mouth so there's more options as far as food, but he doesn't seem to care about any of it.
 

ShadowBass

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jan 13, 2007
2,322
6
0
Poplar Bluff, MO
Oni Angel-Hannya;1411759; said:
Good luck.They always seem to do this!
Thanks.

We rarely have trouble getting fish to eat, but I guess spiny eels in general just don't like us :screwy:. Usually fish will at least go for live food.
 

SimonL

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Oct 23, 2005
3,213
9
68
Ontario, Canada
Fire eels are a pain to get eating, at least it's a small one. I had an imported 30"er that would only eat live earthworms (at night). Have you tried live blackworms?
 
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