I joined the club

[MonsterMinis]

def prazi him... ive never had issue useing prazi pro with any fish. its one of those things imo that are essentially harmless if the fish is clean, and can nip a potential problem before you even know its there. and idk why but every sponey i have has had to be prazid for IPs within the first 6 monthes... must be how they are bred or collected... since hes so voraciously eating use it as opportunity to indtroduce him to any and all meaty foods now.. they are a pita to get to eat a wide array of food they usually stick to one food and refuse anything else unless you vary it up from the get go. i offer my little guy live black worms ( imo the best food for small spineys) frozen krill cut up, shaved peices of fish, raw shrimp... and ill try anything i find that falls in this... the rest of my spineys only eat nightcrawlers or blackworms... and its not cheap >.<. Fires are notoriouse for only eating nightcrawlers when big enough to eat them, good thing they are a great food.

bloodworms will get most finiky eels eating but be wary... they have very little nutrition to them and if only fed these will stunt the fish, and may cause bloat issues similar to whats commonly seen in cichlids.

they will eat alot when young, imo constant food is ideal but feed 2x a day min. for best growth.

ive found treating them is best done to the same rules you follow for clown loaches with meds.

sorry if I rambled.. i had a love for these fish before i found gar lol.

 

[Dahawkster15]

def prazi him... ive never had issue useing prazi pro with any fish. its one of those things imo that are essentially harmless if the fish is clean, and can nip a potential problem before you even know its there. and idk why but every sponey i have has had to be prazid for IPs within the first 6 monthes... must be how they are bred or collected... since hes so voraciously eating use it as opportunity to indtroduce him to any and all meaty foods now.. they are a pita to get to eat a wide array of food they usually stick to one food and refuse anything else unless you vary it up from the get go. i offer my little guy live black worms ( imo the best food for small spineys) frozen krill cut up, shaved peices of fish, raw shrimp... and ill try anything i find that falls in this... the rest of my spineys only eat nightcrawlers or blackworms... and its not cheap >.<. Fires are notoriouse for only eating nightcrawlers when big enough to eat them, good thing they are a great food.

bloodworms will get most finiky eels eating but be wary... they have very little nutrition to them and if only fed these will stunt the fish, and may cause bloat issues similar to whats commonly seen in cichlids.

they will eat alot when young, imo constant food is ideal but feed 2x a day min. for best growth.

ive found treating them is best done to the same rules you follow for clown loaches with meds.

sorry if I rambled.. i had a love for these fish before i found gar lol.

I'd sit here and talk gar and spiney eels with you all day! I've been reading your threads from a couple years back when you had your trio of fires! You also had many other kinds of spineys. It was very enjoyable! But I must say it was very sad even for me when I read you lost them...but anyways, thanks for the advice! I went to Walmart yesterday to get some worms and they had 2 options: Big Res Worms and Nightcrawlers. I figured might crawlers would be too large, even cut up so I went with the big red worms. He ate one. I tried again later and he didn't go after it. The second one was much larger than the first one. Do you think he was full? Or will he not even bother something if it appears too big? I am going to try to cut them up for tonight's feeding. I dried freeze drie krill but he didn't take it. I will pick up some regular frozen krill and try that. But anyways, yeah I love my gar and now my spiney lol

 

[ShadowBass]

Sometimes they are definitely picky about size. Mine was at first, but now he'll grab stuff way too big meant for the catfish.

Mine had been eating ghost shrimp at the store, and we started him on worms. He then went to cocktail shrimp, and now he eats fish filet, shrimp, crawfish meat, or essentially just about anything made of meat.

Still no pellets. I put them in for the other fish and he'll taste one then spit it out and ignore the rest.

 

[Dahawkster15]

Sometimes they are definitely picky about size. Mine was at first, but now he'll grab stuff way too big meant for the catfish.

Mine had been eating ghost shrimp at the store, and we started him on worms. He then went to cocktail shrimp, and now he eats fish filet, shrimp, crawfish meat, or essentially just about anything made of meat.

Still no pellets. I put them in for the other fish and he'll taste one then spit it out and ignore the rest.

Lol, yeah he loves bloodworms but that's not nutritional enough...I'm going to keep trying new things and see what he likes lol

 

[MonsterMinis]

mine never liked the red worms they produce a nasty smell and i think the texture doesn't appeal. heather brings up some great info too. but your approach is excellent! i would try frozen mysis as well, never had much luck with frozen brine and those are as bad as bloodworms. unless they are freshly hatched baby and those are going to be way to small....

btw cutting up nightcrawlers is so messy I've actually considered getting a coffee grinder or magic bullet lol..

But i would try locating a local lfs that sells blackworms incase you ever need to bulk him up or have issues.

Thank you for your kind words as well, its hard to admit failures. but ive learned alot from them, and knock on wood my new lil fire is doing excellent.

 

[ShadowBass]

btw cutting up nightcrawlers is so messy I've actually considered getting a coffee grinder or magic bullet lol..

You're not the only one...

In the end it just seemed wrong though lol.

Yeah tearing/cutting them up by hand isn't technically better, but something just SEEMS weird about throwing live worms in a food processor.

But I do sometimes do that with frozen fish,shrimp, etc. for my small fish. You just need to make sure to rinse it in a strainer, otherwise you'll have itty bitty particles floating around that are too small for them to go after and it soils your filter quickly. And it only takes one or two quick presses of the button, unless you want to make it into a fine puree.
Though you can always make the jello/ager cubes if you do that. Some fish like those, and that way you can get a variety of foods in there. Might even be able to sneak some pellet in.

 

[Dahawkster15]

mine never liked the red worms they produce a nasty smell and i think the texture doesn't appeal. heather brings up some great info too. but your approach is excellent! i would try frozen mysis as well, never had much luck with frozen brine and those are as bad as bloodworms. unless they are freshly hatched baby and those are going to be way to small....

btw cutting up nightcrawlers is so messy I've actually considered getting a coffee grinder or magic bullet lol..

But i would try locating a local lfs that sells blackworms incase you ever need to bulk him up or have issues.

Thank you for your kind words as well, its hard to admit failures. but ive learned alot from them, and knock on wood my new lil fire is doing excellent.

When I got home from work last night he had a red worm halfway down before my zig zag came and ripped the other half off lol. But I believe he has made my zig zag more social.

 

[Dahawkster15]

You're not the only one...

In the end it just seemed wrong though lol.

Yeah tearing/cutting them up by hand isn't technically better, but something just SEEMS weird about throwing live worms in a food processor.

But I do sometimes do that with frozen fish,shrimp, etc. for my small fish. You just need to make sure to rinse it in a strainer, otherwise you'll have itty bitty particles floating around that are too small for them to go after and it soils your filter quickly. And it only takes one or two quick presses of the button, unless you want to make it into a fine puree.
Though you can always make the jello/ager cubes if you do that. Some fish like those, and that way you can get a variety of foods in there. Might even be able to sneak some pellet in.

Actually blending everything up and then freezing them into small cubes is a genius idea! Except way too disgusting for me...I can only imagine the appearance and smell of worms, pellets, krill, shrimp, or whatever else you wanna toss in there haha. I think I will just stick with live worms and frozen music for now! Hopefully one day he'll be big enough to eat whole night crawlers lol

 

[MonsterMinis]

LOL

there is actually a great thread in the ray subforum about makeing your own gel food. nightcrawlers disintigrate when you freeze then thaw them... but i have used a recipe base from it involveing Knox food gel and pellets, fish, and heavy on the krill that my fires did eat now and then. tbh idk why i dont make it more often for my gar and stingrays.

and yeah heather.. something about putting even a live worm in a blender is just to far for me. Im pro live foods... but doing that to anything living gives me the heebes.

 

[Dahawkster15]

LOL

there is actually a great thread in the ray subforum about makeing your own gel food. nightcrawlers disintigrate when you freeze then thaw them... but i have used a recipe base from it involveing Knox food gel and pellets, fish, and heavy on the krill that my fires did eat now and then. tbh idk why i dont make it more often for my gar and stingrays.

and yeah heather.. something about putting even a live worm in a blender is just to far for me. Im pro live foods... but doing that to anything living gives me the heebes.

The diy cubes are very practical and smart, but I just can't do it haha