Feeding American Eels

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1commander

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 22, 2007
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Georgia
I have an American eel a little over 2 feet long. He knows when I am going to feed him, and comes right to the surface to be fed. However, he does this just upon seeing me, so I don't know if he needs to be fed more or just being a hog. Since he is quite large, so I don't really know how much to feed him. Right now, I feed him 1-2 nightcrawlers per day. Once I fed him about 10 night crawlers in one sitting, and he still wanted more. I have not seen anything, even after extensive scientific reading, that recommends a good diet (for a large eel) in captivity.

Also, what else is a good food for them? I hear they eat anything, but I don't want to give him live fish or any sort of shell fish because they may carry parasites.
 
I'd go with shrimp or squid. I catch em off a pier on squid and clam. You don't need to worry about underfeeding. His surfacing when you go near the tank is due to pavlovian conditioning.
 
Thanks for the suggestions, but I would really like to know how much to feed him. I haven't seen him stop eating yet, but don't want to tempt fate by over feeding him. Also, he is in a freshwater tank (although I know they are catadromous), so would untreated salt water squid be a problem for other fish in the tank (which are purely freshwater)?
 
I don't think shrimp will hurt her. I feed shrimp to many FW fishes without issues. As far as feeding her what amount.....I can imagine the diameter of your fish at over 24" would benefit form more that two measly nightcrawlers. I would look at the belly of the fish after feeding and determine how many of whatever it needs. I also might suggest feedeing every other day but that's just me.

Feeding amounts are only opinion so you're bound to get all kinds of responses.
 
I am not sure if shrimp carry parasites that could be bad for eels, but it's a possibility. I know people are going to just give their opinions, but I thought there might be someone around who has taken care of eels in the past and could give a little guidance. What do people feed similar sized eels (with a relatively large diameter - not like pencil thin)?

Fed him 11 nightcrawlers yesterday, but he still wanted more. I know it's just conditioning, but I am nevertheless really worried that I am not feeding him enough. I figured in the wild food was scarce (american eels aren't the best hunters as well) and they go days without food so 2 night crawlers would be enough, but I am thinking of upping it to 6 every other day.
 
Mix up his diet a bit, earthworms will be fine, but so will fish, beef heart, chicken, squid or shrimp.

In the wild they eat small fish, aquatic insect larvae, dead cows :eek:, ducklings :WHOA:... anything really.

There is a WIDE range between enough food to keep him healthy, and as much food as he can safely eat. Personally I would go with a small feed each day and keep an eye on his condition and adjust the amounts accordingly. It wont harm him to give him a BIG feed, but then he's likely to go sit under a rock for a week and digest it. Could play havoc with the water conditions too, small regular feeds will be easier for the filters to handle.

The one in the creek at the bottom of my garden mostly eats raw chicken offcuts. It's not a Nth Am. eel, but they are a related species.

Cheers

Ian
 
Squid shouldn't hurt him. Just rinse in cold fresh water and cut into bit sized pieces. Remove gits, pen, eyes, and ink sac of you're buying whole squid.
 
I think it's a typo and he means guts.

If you're feeding shrimp, you can buy krill or buy cooked shrimp at the supermarket. Cooked shrimp is more palatable for the eel and other fish if you feed the shrimp to your fish.
 
Thanks for the suggestions everyone.

An Update:
I started feeding him at least 4 night crawlers every other day, averaging about 20 per week (since I feed him more often than that when I walk by the tank on occasion). I also tried squid and he took it, but it's pretty expensive and doesn't keep well so I might do that only a couple times a month.

I don't know if this is the right amount and I am experimenting now with giving him 6 every other day, which would be at least 25 per week, given that I will continue to give him a few nightcrawlers on the side.

One thing that I have noticed is that his waste vanishes from the tank mysteriously. I am overfiltered and have a 110 gallon tank with a FX5 and 2 Aquaclears, but none of these are capable of picking up the large waste he produces which lies at the bottom. (I have run the AC's for 2 months now and there is extremely little (maybe no) obvious material caught in the foam pads. So my best guess is that he was re-consuming his waste. I don't know if he is doing this on purpose - he has a habit of trying to eat anything that touches him, and because there is a large current in the tank, the waste swirls about. But if it is on purpose, it could be that I am not feeding him correctly. Any thoughts?
 
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