How long is safe to starve a Fire eel?

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robroy

Polypterus
MFK Member
Feb 19, 2006
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I'm trying to get my 10" Fire eel off earthworms. This is the only food he'll eat and they're getting difficult to find with the colder weather now.

I started starving him 2 weeks ago to try and get him on frozen fish. I've tried at the end of the first and second week and hes shown no interest at all.

How long can a eel of this size go without food? I'm not sure I'm going to be successful in my efforts :(
 
I was able to get my fire eel off night crawlers and onto frozen tilapia and freeze dried krill in two days. It might take you a bit longer, but first, start feeding him the worms with one of those grabbers they sell at pet stores.

like this http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/petco-aquatic-gardener-reviews

Soon enough the eel will start to associate the grabber with food, mine tries to eat it every time I put it in the tank. Once that happens, feed him a piece of night crawler and then a piece of thawed fish. He may spit it out at first, but soon enough the eel will start taking the fish, and you can start feeding without the grabber.
 
My fire eel eats blood worms exclusively, and i have tried to get him to eat krill without success. I have starved him for 1 an a half months once but i just couldn't do it any longer, so i gave in. I will try again though. FYI, i also have a TT eel that was the same size as the fire eel when i got them, but he eats krill and he is 3 times bigger. I believe it's the higher protein of the krill that made him bigger then the fire eel. I really want my fire eel to eat krill also.
 
zukiGS500;4660097; said:
I was able to get my fire eel off night crawlers and onto frozen tilapia and freeze dried krill in two days. It might take you a bit longer, but first, start feeding him the worms with one of those grabbers they sell at pet stores.

like this http://www.buzzillions.com/reviews/petco-aquatic-gardener-reviews

Soon enough the eel will start to associate the grabber with food, mine tries to eat it every time I put it in the tank. Once that happens, feed him a piece of night crawler and then a piece of thawed fish. He may spit it out at first, but soon enough the eel will start taking the fish, and you can start feeding without the grabber.
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Food association. I hand-feed all my spineys and have variouse degrees of success in introduceing new foods. my fire eels will not look at a feeder or peice of tilapia, while my TT loves rosey minnows and cut up fish. krill and bloodworms have been my 2 easiest foods to get most spineys eating. My fires refused anything but live worms for a long time. be persistant. I would give them enough worms to keep them from starveing to death ( fish will starve to death, it's a common myth that they will "eventually eat" ) and offering them all the frozen/prepared foods they can eat. mine spit out krill for awhile, nightcrawlers are still their favorite but they eat the krill now.
 
I'm in the process of weaning my huge fire eel off of night crawlers. I have a TT eel that will accept tilapia,shrimp and a host of other foods(took quite a while). I got the fire eel at about 26" having never eaten anything but worms. What I am trying to do is cut the tilapia fillets into long thin strips and hand feed. Hasn't worked yet but I just started. I used the same method to get my TT eel to eat other things.


Good luck,
Chris
 
If you are having problems with the eel taking talapia or krill, but spitting it out, try thawing or soaking them in a cup of water with a cube of frozen blood worms and then feeding.
 
robroy said:
I'm trying to get my 10" Fire eel off earthworms. This is the only food he'll eat and they're getting difficult to find with the colder weather now.

I started starving him 2 weeks ago to try and get him on frozen fish. I've tried at the end of the first and second week and hes shown no interest at all.

How long can a eel of this size go without food? I'm not sure I'm going to be successful in my efforts :(
Click to expand...
Best thing to actually do is to farm your own earth worms. High in protein and Fire eel loves them.
 
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