New Fire

[Fish Tank Travis]

Fish Tank Travis Wow!! Killer striping coming in on that fire!

Thank you. That's why I got him. He was a spontaneous buy at my LFS when I saw how much red he had in his coloration. My other two, that I got at about 4", had mostly yellow and light orange striping. Now that they have grown to 13-14" and eat such a variety of food, their streaks have turned to a much darker orange, almost red, and then lighten up to a firey orange by their head. It's still nothing like the red that already shows on my smaller one, who I got at about 7-8".

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Here are some pictures of my larger two. These are from early May, and they've grown since then. Lol

 

[Experiment397]

Ughhh. As if I didn't want mine to grow quicker already. Now you show me those beasts?!

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Ughhh. As if I didn't want mine to grow quicker already. Now you show me those beasts?!

It won't be long. I put them in my 220 back in mid Jan. They were only about 9-10" then and are already pushing 13-14" now. By the end of the year I can easily see them getting to about 18". Hopefully, my smaller one will be around 14-15" by then too.

 

[FriedFlowerHornFillet]

The biggest fire eel on youtube was a year old.
Mine is barely a foot lol.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

The biggest fire eel on youtube was a year old.
Mine is barely a foot lol.

I wouldn't believe everything that is said on YouTube. I highly doubt that a fire eel could get to 40+ inches in a year.

 

[krichardson]

Fire eels are great but a painintheass to feed in my experience.I will try keeping another one some day.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Fire eels are great but a painintheass to feed in my experience.I will try keeping another one some day.

They can be difficult to get started, until they get a little bigger, but in my experience they eat voraciously once they are comfortable. My two larger eels eat just about everything frozen or live (worms not fish) that I put in the water. They even eat frozen beef heart cubes. My smaller one eats more and more each week. I don't really think they are anymore difficult than rays or peacock bass, except that they will not ever eat pellets.

 

[krichardson]

The little guy that I had would only eat live blackworms in the beginning,none of that frozen bloodworm stuff lol.It wouldn't touch cut up fish and shrimp at all.Over the next few weeks it started taking small earthworms.I will opt for a bigger and more adjusted eel next time.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

The little guy that I had would only eat live blackworms in the beginning,none of that frozen bloodworm stuff lol.It wouldn't touch cut up fish and shrimp at all.Over the next few weeks it started taking small earthworms.I will opt for a bigger and more adjusted eel next time.

My first two would always demolish frozen bloodworms, so they were really easy. My most recent guy was a lot more picky. He wouldn't touch much of anything. What I finally did to get him going was to feed him a huge variety of everything I had to offer for him and then I waited to see what he would go after. He picked out the live red wigglers and I cleaned the rest out. I then fed him red wigglers to fatten him up while he was in QT. Now that he's in the big tank with the others, I still feed red wigglers, but I throw in a lot more of a variety, and he has started eating shrimp and krill.