Hand Feeding 19+ Inch Fire Eel

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SoCalDiscus

Candiru
MFK Member
Aug 26, 2007
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Irvine, CA
www.socaldiscus.com
Yes, its another Fire Eel feeding Video...

I wanted to try out the new embedding youtube feature, so here is a clip of feeding our Fire Eels. The big one is about 19 inches, and the two smaller ones are around 9 inches or so. We have had them for about three weeks now, and they seem to be well adjusted. Not shy at all, and eat from the hand. They are rooming with a bunch of plecos.


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We are keeping to the same paramaters as our discus tanks with everything except the temp. We are at around 82, but would like to be closer to 80. Once I get done with some tests at school I will work on a fan for the lights.

The one issue we are trying to figure out is the feeding frequency. The store owner where we got the big one was feeding 4-5 nightcrawlers 1-2 times a week. Looking at pics of other fire eels, he was under fed being that he had cavities behind his eyes. From my research, it looks like their heads should be more conical and not have indentations. The smaller ones exhibit the conical head trait. The big one also did not have much color.

We have been feeding him 2-3 nightcrawlers in the morning and 2-3 in the evening along with market shrimp split down the middle. He tends to beg until he is full and then go to the back... so we generally space out the feeding unlike in the video clip. This way he can let us know when he is full. He is starting to fill out behind his eyes and is getting more color along the side. Any experience/feedback on feeding or other issues is always appreciated.

One of the smaller fire eels has a scrape on his side in the video that looks whiteish in color. I've been monitoring it and it is continuing to heal, it doesn't look like any sort of fungus which I have read can be an issue with there guys.

-Eric
 
Thanks guys. No worries about the tank, the video was just taken really zoomed in... you can only see like a 1/4 of the tank. I keep hearing that eels are supposed to be shy but these guys follow you around like dogs. The big guy we got about a month+ ago, and we paid $90 and $19 for each of the 9.5inchers. Thanks for watching!!!
 
Yeah, I got my 9.5 incher for 20 bucks as well. I heard they don't do well with conspecifics, but you're the counterexample? It's a good thing they get along. I'm guessing 150G for the tank size.
 
i wish i can do that with my 20incher that i got like couple weeks ago.... havent seen it eat like urs at all... mine darts to the other side of the tank when my hand is near x.x

anyway, ur eels r amazing!!!
 
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