I am going to need to be gone for a couple of months and am worried about my small eel eating enough when I am not the one feeding it. I was thinking about populating my tank with small snails to give it more things to hunt down and eat, besides the other fish. Anyone have experience with or an opinion an how this would work out? For further explanation, I do not know yet how knowledgeable a house/fish sitter I am going to have. All my other fish and tanks I can leave pre-measured food and a feeding schedule, my main concern is the eel.
Can a Snow Flake eel live on small snails?
- Thread starter Chaz88
- Start date
So far, for me, it will eat any small meaty piece of fish or shrimp I dangle in front of him. My concern is if my fish sitter will have the patents and remember to take the time to target feed it. It also hunts down small crustations and eats them but they probably don't breed fast enough to sustain the eel along with the other fish that take the opportunity to eat them. I thought snails might be able to keep up with the food demand longer, if it is not target fed enough.
I wouldnt bet on it.
Is there anything else in the tank?
Tell the sitter that you are paying him specifically to take care of your fish, and that target feeding is a part of that.
Is there anything else in the tank?
Tell the sitter that you are paying him specifically to take care of your fish, and that target feeding is a part of that.
FLESHY;4764989; said:
It is in a 120g. with several other fish that "should" be safe until the eel is big enough to move to a larger tank. There are also the assorted crabs and crustations that come with live rock and such. Between the eel and the puffer I don't count on that food source lasting for the long term.
The sitter is going to be a college student that gets a free house and utilities for the summer in return for taking care of things. If the person I think is going to stay works out everything should be fine. I just want to provide as much insurance as I can.
Having them in there cant hurt, but it would take a pretty hungry snowflake to eat a big snail in my mind.
I think you should be able to get the person sitting to feed the necessary food. You can portion this by getting ziplock bags and putting one meal worth into each bag. The bag can be taken out of the freezer and run under cold water while feeding the other fish. To make it easier for the sitter you should get a feeding stick, this way the sitter can get the food to the eel efficiently and not have to wait around for the eel to find the food.
nonstophoops;4767989; said:
I think you all are correct and the best thing is to set the sitter up for success, as much as possible, and drill them on how to do the job.
Unless the eel is hunting down small crabs and such on its own it is target fed with plastic tongs. It occupies a small cave with the mouth in the highest flow part of the tank and would probably not find the food before other fish got to it, if not target fed. (I don't like to say hand fed because it implies holding the food in my fingers and that nearly always leads to a bite, sooner or later.)