Extremely picky Fire Eel

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KHarris

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Nov 8, 2012
42
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South Carolina
Apologies if this is in the wrong thread, I couldn't find anywhere else that seemed appropriate.

I have a 9-10" Fire Eel that I'm having issues with food-wise. The only food he will touch are garden earthworms, and it's been like that since I got him a few months ago. However, now that the weather is getting colder, these worms are becoming more and more scarce, and local tackle shops don't carry these worms small enough for my eel.

I've tried freezedried bloodworms, frozen bloodworms, and red wigglers (which I still have plenty of) and he will either ignore those, or eat them and spit them right back out and swim away.
He is always begging for food, swimming around at the front of the tank multiple times a day and inspects my hand for food when I stick it in, so I know he has an appetite.

I would like to start feeding him the bloodworms and red wigglers from now on instead of the garden earthworms, but I can't get him to touch them. Does anyone have any tips or pointers on how to get him to eat these and keep them down? I don't want him to starve.
 
Fire eels are notorious for being picky eaters. I would try buying live foods, live blood or black worms if your store carries them. Possibly live brine might be accepted, but I would try the live worms. If you can get him to eat the live foods, you might have better luck getting him on frozen freeze dried. You could also try offering broken up pieces of massivore. Im not sure if it would work and I never tried with fire eels, but I pellet trianed my american eels with massivore. They ignored everything I tried, blood worms and fresh pieces of fish. But when I offered massivore they immediately ate the pellets. Its worth a shot
 
Unfortunately the only worms my LFS carry are the freezedried and frozen kinds, so I'm a bit limited in that department. I might try to look online again for live blood and black worms (I've yet to come across any, everything is either frozen or freezedried).
 
hmm, its a shame more LFS dont carry live options. I think aquabid usually has live cultures for sale
 
I'll check aquabid, thanks :) The red wigglers I have are all live, but he still spits them out. They're perfect size for him too, I wish he'd take them.
 
KHarris said:
I'll check aquabid, thanks :) The red wigglers I have are all live, but he still spits them out. They're perfect size for him too, I wish he'd take them.
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He isnt actually eating them? just trying and spitting them out? I would try a smaller size then, perhaps the bloodworms are a good live option. Before you try that, you might want to try cutting up the worms into tiny morsels. If he likes the smell and taste, he might just be picky about the size. Sometimes wigglers put up too much of a fight for finicky fish
 
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