good or bad idea for peacock eel feeding?

[Tulip_Sniper]

I was trying to think of a way to make sure my peacock eel eats since they can be hard to feed. Here's my idea please tell me if this has any shot at working. I want to get a small 10 gallon tank go to an lfs and buy some ghost shrimp put them in the 10 gallon and let them mate. Thus supplying my eel with a steady supply of food to eat whenever he gets hungry (and also have a small clean up crew at the same time).

My other questions besides will this work is how old do ghost shrimp need to be before they can mate? How cost effective would this be? How hard is it to get them to mate? Would my eel even bother with tracking down a ghost shrimp to eat when he's hungry?

 

[toehead11183]

I was trying to think of a way to make sure my peacock eel eats since they can be hard to feed. Here's my idea please tell me if this has any shot at working. I want to get a small 10 gallon tank go to an lfs and buy some ghost shrimp put them in the 10 gallon and let them mate. Thus supplying my eel with a steady supply of food to eat whenever he gets hungry (and also have a small clean up crew at the same time).

My other questions besides will this work is how old do ghost shrimp need to be before they can mate? How cost effective would this be? How hard is it to get them to mate? Would my eel even bother with tracking down a ghost shrimp to eat when he's hungry?

ghost shrimp need salt to reproduce. I have had many get as far as eggs but none that hatched and survived. Probably not very cost effective either

 

[Tulip_Sniper]

So I took your advice and passed up on breeding the shrimp. I just got back from an lfs store to pick up two new fish. I also bought a dozen ghost shrimp I figured I'd put them all in my tank and let my peacock eel feed when he wants. I get home take a closer look at the bag and to my shock FIVE out my dozen shrimp are carrying eggs! I ran by the store and bought a little bowl to put them in. I hope they release their eggs soon one looks like shes going to pop. I took some pics to show you guys. Anyone have any pointers?

 

[toehead11183]

when working at the LFS, i noticed that more than half of the GS would be pregnant but thats as far as if gets. I have has hatchlings on two occasions but they always died. add a little aquarium salt as i have heard they need semi-full brackish conditions to reproduce successfully.

 

[ras irie]

from my experience you dont need to add any salt to the water. I have a 10 gal on my porch. started with about 30 ghost shrimp, now 2 months later i have like 150. no need feed them either cause get plenty algae growing on the sides of the tank. a sponge filter is good enough, cause if you want to breed shrimp, strong filters will suck up any of the new born shrimp. hope this helped you out a bit. good luck

 

[killerfish]

They mayn not eat the ghost shrimps they would need to be pretty pratty small peacocks have very small mouths which may be why your trieing to breed them

adding a little salt might help as for food the will eat algea but when given the choice they will eat flakes and sometimes pellets if theres no algea in the tank then i would give them crushed flakes they will feed on little critters that live on the algea when young and will also nibble at it some

 

[Tulip_Sniper]

thanks for the responses guys I lost two of the females last night the big girl is still alive. I went ahead and put them into my tank and they all seem to be doing pretty well. I checked this morning to see how they were doing and my 1 1/2 inch black con killed a male ghost shrimp. Other than that everyone is doing fine.

 

[sprwoman1]

I had a similar idea, but with cherry shrimp. Figured I'd add a bunch to a planted tank by themselves. People say they breed like crazy and need thinned out every so often. Way I see it I'd get to have neat little shrimp to enjoy and extras to feed my eel. My only real question about it was the possibility of compaction, haven't fed ghost shrimp to any spiny eels yet. So I don't know if eating a lot of whole shrimp could led to impaction or not? Apparently a lot of people feed ghost shrimp, so it's probably OK, but I'd still like assurances.

 

[rba718]

I don't know if you want to try it this way but this has always worked for me for a variety of different fish.

It's very simple. Get one of those wooden Cabobb sticks, (You can get a whole pack for a couple bucks at most at the supermarket.), and just place a Shrimp on it. It doesn't even have to be alive. For me, I use Hikari Brine Shrimp and I just stick it on the very tip of the stick, and I place it inside the tank near the fish I'm trying to feed. The fish picks up on it in seconds and takes the food right off.

I've tried this with great success with Bichirs, Ropefish, Ghost Knives, Crayfish, and Rocket Gars. Good luck!

 

[killerfish]

thanks for the responses guys I lost two of the females last night the big girl is still alive. I went ahead and put them into my tank and they all seem to be doing pretty well. I checked this morning to see how they were doing and my 1 1/2 inch black con killed a male ghost shrimp. Other than that everyone is doing fine.

may wan't to move them they won't last long with cichlids or are the cichlids in with the spiny eel