fire eel question

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
matthewkingoftheworld;4192503; said:
ive had him for about a year. he's in a odd ball tank at 60 gals so if i was to put bloodworm (for example) nothing would guarantee he would get it. he gets prawn oncw a day thats about the long and short of it. doesnt actively chase anything. a feeder fish wound get destroyed by other things before ole' fire eel.


the pictures im gonna put up arent great. done on a camera phone. sorry
How much do you feed it (like how many prawns)? Also, is it possible that you just measured incorrectly?
 
power feed? maybe you would want to consider letting him have his own tank for a while till he gets larger?
 
how much shrimp are you giving him?I would feed mine as much as he would take until he got good size.He is on a diet now.I would also try live worms.Mine is still growing at about an inch per mouth at around 3 feet,thick as a mans arm.
 
i make sure he gets at least a whole giant prawn then the rest of the food is up to the mercy of the tank. im running 4 tanks in my flat and my mrs who go ballistic if she came home from work and there was another set up, although if he was on his own i could make sure he is eating enough. i haven't kept eels very long in relation to other fish. both my eels seem very secrective about eating.


he's definately about 7 ish inch. i have had my moray for about 4 months and he's about 8 inch longer and twice as thick. the fire eel just seems like he's refusing to grow. its bugging me
 
i think he need a bigger tank if he not growing. :thumbsup:
 
wouldnt have thought a bigger tank would made any difference. if he's not competing for food in a 60g tank he's not gonna do it in a 100 or a 150. i might try and get him in a wee 2 footer and see if i can plump him up.
 
matthewkingoftheworld;4196722; said:
wouldnt have thought a bigger tank would made any difference. if he's not competing for food in a 60g tank he's not gonna do it in a 100 or a 150. i might try and get him in a wee 2 footer and see if i can plump him up.
You can't expect a handfed eel to compete in any tank with other large fish. If you are going to hand feed any spiny eel it is your job to make sure it is getting enough food by continuing to offer it food until either it stops taking food or until it starts to look full. If you do this, then there's no reason why upgrading it to an acceptably sized tank would be a problem. If you expect it to ever reach its full growth potential, then you will need to eventually upgrade to at least a 180 gallon, but for now its biggest problem is probably its feeding. Tank size is only an issue when it prevents the maintenance of acceptable water quality or when it doesn't allow the fish to move comfortably, in your case it shouldn't be a problem for now.

Edit: Also, you are going to need to set up another decent sized tank for the moray as well, they need to be kept in either brackish or full salt water to thrive, and I'm not sure of their maximum size but I'd say a 125 gallon would probably be the minimum size for an adult.
^^^ I looked it up and they get to 2', so yeah, 125g minimum.
 
more food. more variety. ive got a tt thats grown a lil under 2 inches in the month i have him.
 
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