Help! Moray eel won't stop eating!

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I'm a big fan of supermarket food... try squid/octopus, smelt and other cheap fish like that. Shrimp is good too. You should also grab some nutrient suppliments at your LFS... I use vitachem but others are fine as well.

I don't think anyone means to come down on you; LFS aren't always good at giving you up front info on what is/isn't good for your fish. I would def recomend halting the use of live FW feeders entirely.
 
Way more nutritious than goldfish & they also contain the enzyme thiaminase. This breaks down thiamin (vitamin B1) and over time this will lead to serious health problems.--really bad for your eel:
http://www.**************.com/forum/library/feeding/feeders/
 
Today I bought a large bag of smelt. I put an entire fish in for my moray and he tore it up, but did not eat much of it. I tried teasing him with it and he didn't really go for it. Normally he is all over the spot feeder, but he just ignored it. My purple spotted goby didn't really go for the smelt which really shocked me as just the other day he tore a feeder out of the eel's mouth. I tried dropping some pieces back into the water for him and he took a bite, but spit it back out. My dragon goby ended up inhaling some as well and he spit it out.

I tried dipping the smelt in my community tank (even the glass cats are like Jaws when it comes to feeding) and not one fish paid any attention to it >:o
 
Try smaller pieces.
 
Get your eel on pellets people say they won't take pellets. I had one that did you just have to be patient. Start with market shrimp get it use to that. Then try stuffing a piece of massivore in side a piece of shrimp. Once they get used to that then straight on to the massivore. And then on to a good quality pellet like NLS. Pellets and frozen food like market shrimp or tilapia will be a good diet for your g tile. What SG is your eel at.
 
It's like trying to get a kid off junk food.
 
I am just shocked that fish do not like smelt. I would think it would be like a treat to them. I do plan on getting the eel to start eating it though. Like I said, he ate some of it but just made a mess with the rest.

I am going to try to feed the eel only smelt for a few days before I get them another kind of food (such as octopus, shrimp or another kind of fish) to help it get used to the smelt.

crisper;3995655; said:
Get your eel on pellets people say they won't take pellets. I had one that did you just have to be patient. Start with market shrimp get it use to that. Then try stuffing a piece of massivore in side a piece of shrimp. Once they get used to that then straight on to the massivore. And then on to a good quality pellet like NLS. Pellets and frozen food like market shrimp or tilapia will be a good diet for your g tile. What SG is your eel at.
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That is a really good idea!

I think it was around .010 last time I checked. I was trying to keep it at lower end BW for the PSG but somehow it went up to .010
 
I would say try to keep it in the upper range of Brackish water, if not full salt. Also, I'm not a huge fan of pellets for morays, but that's just me

TheCanuck;3995636; said:
They are use to the treats of live rosies. Be tough and don't give in, they want there unhealthy food. After a couple days they should take smelt and other non live just like the rosies. Keep it up man, also no eel can resist gorging itself with octopus.
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Ditto... also remember he expects live food now, so try cutting the food into bite size pieces, putting it on a feeding stick and moving it around in front of him. Don't hesitate to poke him with the food itself (as long as the stick itself can't hurt him) to get a 'feeding response' where he bites defensivly and realizes it's food. I can't agree more on octopus/squid... espescially the tentacles.
 
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