Feeg Peacock Eel

[kitnerjr]

I have a peacock eel, about 3" long, have had him for a little over a week now.
I've been feeding him frozen blood worms once a day through a turkey baster and he seems to be eating with no problem.
Should I be feeding him more than once a day? I cut the frozen cubes in half, and have to feed him with the turkey baster or the other fish will get to them first.

**Feeding Peacock Eel** - Sorry about the misspelling.

 

[MonsterMinis]

imo you can't overfeed a juvinile fish of any species. is he plumping up at all? or is he staying fairly slender? that is in perportion to his size?.. I've found frozen bloodworms to keep spiney eels alive.. but not really do much for growth/over-all health long-term. 3" is pretty small to be cutting up other peices of food.. but you can try shaveing peices of tilapia or earthworm. But you're best off getting it black worms if you can find them. This will grow your spiney both length and width wise, the downside is blackworms ime are irresistable.. and so being harder to get the fish to eat other foods once it gets larger.

 

[BZR]

Black worms sound like a good idea, what tankmates do you have with your peacock eel?

 

[MonsterMinis]

atm I don't own any peacocks.. I have 2 very sassy and boisterous M. Dayi ( similar to a tire track, Which are housed with 3 gar approx the same size.) I did however keep my peacock eels with larger semi-aggressive/docile tank mates.. I had a group of 3 in a 55 with a pair of angel fish, some cherry barbs, rosy barbs.. and platies. The eels did eat the fry.. but for me this was helpfull at keeping the tanks stock in check. Unfortunately the Angels paired up and went nutzo.. and ended up killing all their tank-mates includeing the eels in the end. Looking back I know they would have all been fine had I only had the 1 Angel, I'm pretty sure the eels attempted to eat the Angels spawn and caught them on a bad day. I've found with most spineys Staying clear of Cichlids, and other "Territorial" species in general is usually the best way to go, or only keeping a single cichlid of the more docile nature do well.

 

[kitnerjr]

I've recently had a bad dose of Ick caused by ammonia spikes and stress from doing frequent water changes (thanks to the little step daughter that can't keep her hands and objects out of the tank), and lost a few tank mates, but there are 2 balla sharks, 1 pink gourami, 1 dwarf gourami, 2 upside down catfish and 5 community fish that came with the tank. Just did an additional test yesterday and all levels were perfect besides the PH was every so slightly low, he is pretty accustomed to my turkey baster and tries to swim up it during each feeding, so he is eating pretty well, active, proportionate to his size, not to slender. I will check around for blackworms, but should I continue my once a day feedings or try for twice a day?

 

[MonsterMinis]

if he'll eat 2x a day I would feed him 2x a day.. as long as it's not going to waste.. stress from doing water changes... is actually almost impossible to do, and tbh compleate BS ime. I do 50% on average a week on all of my tanks and some get even more. You run into issues with water changes if you don't do them frequently enough, and then do a large one. what level is your PH?.. over 6.5 and under 8.0 I wouldn't worry. the fish you listed are all low/mid PH species for the most part so somewhere in the 7 range is perfectly fine. the PH can also be effected by Ammonia when it is converted to ammonium, so you may be seeing some residual issues there.. keeping your water changes regular and steady will fix any residual issues lurking. I've found the best "recipe" for figuring out how to keep a tank stable is to get your perameters 0 ammonia 0 nitrite and Keeping your Nitrates in the 15- 25 ppm range. Which generally ='s 25% 1x a week or so. It's also a good formula for figureing out stocking levels ect ( once takeing into account size of fish as adults/and compatablilty). I know probablly more info then you wanted or asked for, but just trying to help.

a minor note if you haven't read it yet is spiney eels and all scaless fish are delicate to medictions, particularly copper based ones ( which are usually used in treating ick) and are best avoided if possible. Glad your tank is doing better.. and sorry for the delayed response.