Oh fire eel, why must you be a pain in the butt?

[Carefree_Dude]

Alright, my fire eel is a weirdo. Way back when i first got him, he would eat anything; pellets, worms, flakes, shrimp.... and would eat them out of my hand. Well, he got real sick, and almost died. I quarantined him, and i couldn't get him to eat anything. Finally a i threw live ghost shrimp in with him, and he would eat them.

Now, ghost shrimp is all he wants to eat. H ewill eat live ones, dead ones, and when i put my hand in the tank he will swim up to it and see if i have any ghost shrimp for him. Ghost shrimp are expensive though, so i bought some small frozen shrimp from walmart. he wont eat this stuff. its about the same size as the ghost shrimp he has been eating, but he still wont eat it. I've tried garlic, wiggling it around, offering it on a platter with dead ghost shrimp...

I got curious, and paid for some fancier live shrimp. and... he ignores them. I saw one walking on his nose the other day.

He's gone a week and a half without eating anything, and i can tell he is very hungry with how he hovers around my hand, but he still wont eat anything else.

What can i do to break this guy of his ghost shrimp diet? ghost shrimp is expensive... would buying another fire eel help? maybe if i can get another fire eel to eat other foods, my current one will follow the trend.

 

[Garrett.turbo]

How much are ghost shrimp where you live?there only .33 each here, it cost me like 10 bucks to get 30 which last a while I thing? but I only get them as a treat for my fish like once a month.

 

[pi-eyed]

Good luck man. My fire eel refuses to eat anything but night crawlers(3/day). Which isn't a big deal now it's summer time here. I've tried everything to get him to eat different things. I gave up..Starting a worm bed this year so he has food through the winter.

----Chris

 

[Carefree_Dude]

they are 25 cents each. The problem is that he will eat 100 of them in 3 days.

 

[MonsterMinis]

I would try and switch him over to nightcrawlers if they are fairly cheap in your area. or try frozen bloodworms or live blackworms. My fires refused anything but nightcrawlrs for a very long time. since you spiney recently had issues I woudln't try starve methods to get it to eat. and nightcrawlers are fairly easy to keep/breed if he refused to go back to other foods. the fact it will look to your hand for food is good.. you may be able to entice it to try new food sthis way.. but are one of the most stubborn fish I've ever encountered... try offering a ghost shrimp from your hand... then a peice of krill... back 'n forth... make sure any frozen food is thoroughly thawed... and Ive never had luck with garlic and spineys for a feeding stimulant. when he loses interest with your hand with te krill... go back and offer him another ghost shrimp... just keep him focused on your hand for food. not only are they stubbonr, and seemingly pretty smart, but they also seem to have ADD ime. lol

 

[bbenjamin21]

Yea u definitely want to get him off of ghost shrimp. My ray was stuck on them for awhile. I think any fish could eat a ton of them in one sitting. There's nothing to them. I dunno how many people feed there eels tilapia but mine takes it along with frozen shrimp. Just try anything and everything.