Eel on pellet?
- Thread starter Polyhead
- Start date
Seen TT's trained to eat sinking cichlid pellets. Most Fire eels take shrimp/prawns, or earthworms and thats about it. babies will often take frozen bloodworms. a few have had luck w/ fish fillets as well.
Personally my guys won't touch anything that isn't a nightcrawler/earthworm. they even spit pan worms out, but if they get hungry enough will take them. And I have seen one pick at some prime reef flakes a time or two when I've run out of worms in the past. It's possible, but they seem to be very finicky eaters. And can go downhill very fast if you try and starve them onto other foods for an extended period of time.
Personally my guys won't touch anything that isn't a nightcrawler/earthworm. they even spit pan worms out, but if they get hungry enough will take them. And I have seen one pick at some prime reef flakes a time or two when I've run out of worms in the past. It's possible, but they seem to be very finicky eaters. And can go downhill very fast if you try and starve them onto other foods for an extended period of time.
My fire eel won't touch anything other than earth worms. Even then I have to cut them in half and hand feed him. If I don't cut them in half he just stares at it snobbishly. Same goes if I drop it in the tank in front of him, if I'm not dangling it in front of his face by hand he won't touch it 99% of the time.
From my research I havent found many, if any, people who have successfully trained a fire eel on pellets. Most consider themselves lucky to get them eating anything other than earth worms.
From my research I havent found many, if any, people who have successfully trained a fire eel on pellets. Most consider themselves lucky to get them eating anything other than earth worms.
i have had mine for a couple weeks and havent seen him eat anything? I bought him at aprox 14in. Im starting get worried. I offer tilapia, shrimp and pellets. I think he is to timid to compete w tank mates for food
gavigan1;3609396; said:
From my experience fire eels will NOT compete for ANYTHING. That's why I have to hand feed mine earthworms. If I drop it in the tank, it's almost as if he's afraid of his food lol.
I also had to rehome my Tire Track. The fire eel was twice his size at least, but he let the TT pick on him.
Fire eels will compete for food... just not in your typical fashion.. my guys will sneak, and creep, and steal. They will zip right up to take a worm from me even if my Oscar is coming over to investigate. I have never seen them "toe to toe" with another fish. so they will not ime compete on a "this is my area, you will be attacked" competition field. But once eating they are very voracious eaters. If you'rse hasn't eaten in a few weeks. I would get some earthworms, get him feeding then try an incorperate shrimp and other foods. Hand feeding is how alot of other eel owners have gotten their eels offa worms. My guys hand-feed very easily, yet still refuse anything else i've tried. I'm at the point i'm thinking of stuffing worm peices w/ pellets and going from there. They seem to be hard to get to take other foods until bigger. earthworms can be abit tough on the budget, but they are a very nutritional food at least.
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I have a tire track eel thats about 8" that eats floating cichlid pellets. He loves them and I didnt even have to starve him for him to eat them. When I bought him he was about 6" eating feeder guppies. I used to throw guppies in there for him after I fed all my cichlids their floating pellets....then one day he went to the top to grab a few and has been doing it ever since. Ill try to get a vid of him doing it soon.
This is really hard to see because I used my gf's crappy phone. Sorry I was trying to get it up fast...lol
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q285/razzlexrabbit/?action=view¤t=VID00014.flv
This is really hard to see because I used my gf's crappy phone. Sorry I was trying to get it up fast...lol
http://s139.photobucket.com/albums/q285/razzlexrabbit/?action=view¤t=VID00014.flv