'Spiny eel' ID please. Pic

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
I did see a picture of the frenatus with the large lips when searching the net, but as it was the only one I dismissed it as a wrong ID as there are other examples of the frenatus without. Maybe time will tell, for you before it does me!

Great little fish though, very happy with my purchase.
 
Hey Monsterminis can I ask you?...Does your starry night eel ever eat live fish? Or has it ever had the chance too? My little dude is surrounded by guppy fry who regularly swim right in front of his mouth. The only time he moves for them is when one picks up one of his bloodworms and tries to swim off with it, even then the fry usually gets away with the food and swims about with it for an hour. Would love to see a picture of your year old eel if possible.

I know they can only eat what fits in their mouth, but half of the fry are small enough as he 'yawns' sometimes. He is also getting fat and growing fairly quick, must have been underfed when I brought it. He will happily eat two cubes of bloodworm a day, although half of that gets taken by the two kribs and guppy fry. That sounds like way too much, how much should a young eel live on? and should I mix up the bloodworm diet with other frozen foods? I will get him live earthworms as soon as his cake hole grows a bit.

eelmoss.jpg

He lives in this moss.

eelmoss.jpg
 
lol.. no my guy has never touched another fish as far as I'm aware and I keep him with glo-light tetras. imo young spineys can never be over-fed... bloodworms have little nutritional value so he needs to eat alot to get what he needs.. I would suggest feeding him as much as he'lle at in a sitting 2x a day or so.. and then fasting him for a day or two... such as the weekend ect just to make sure he doesn't get blocked up or anything from haveing food constantly in his belly, one of the huge bonus' to useing live blackwomrs if you can find them( you just put in enough to last the week then replenish once a week or so). You might try mysis shrimp or even takeing krill or reg shrimp,freezing it.. shaving it finely.. and then thawing it and feeding it mixed with the bloodworms. You can also try small sinking pellets softened in the bloodworms as well.

Cut picture of him!
 
Okay great info, thanks. I figured he couldn't eat himself to death as he will retreat into the moss when he is full to digest for a few hours. Im definitely going to find him additional food though. I like idea of shaving some shrimp or such up into small strips like you say, so ill give that a whirl to vary his diet. Ill soon try those live blackworms too as can get some from that auction site (not sure if we can say names on this forum,ha).

Cheers!
 
I found live blackworms to be the best food for smaller spineys hands down. readily taken and they seem to encourage excellent growth and over-all well being. But its always nice to have them eating a variety of foods asap, as this is the biggest challeneg with them usually long-term.
 
I got a pack of mysis shrimp when I went for more bloodworms and he completely ignores them. I didnt realise they were so small but I soaked them in bloodworms for a while and that didnt make any difference. I held a couple right to his mouth with some tweezers and he ate them, but on colser inspection he had fired them out of his gills so he defo isnt interested in them. Ive found its a bit hard to source blackworms here so im going to dig up some small earthworms for the little fussy bugger.
 
I just dug up an small earthworm (well two because the first one went down the plug hole when I was washed it!), offered it to him and he pulled it out of my fingers very eagerly and gobbled it down. Jobs a good'un!
 
lol they are voraciouse lil' buggers when its something they like. might be worth setting up a worm bed for him if you have the time/will. saves alot on food costs and just feed it leftover veggies from your table. I really should start my own.. had one before but ended up feeding out everything w/out realizing it.
 
Yeah im planning on doing that for sure, I just need to convert my compost bin so I can get bottom access. It may already be full of worms as its open to the ground on the bottom, but I havent ever added any to it.
 
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