Striped eel or tire track eel or...

[tlindsey]

Ok so I have bad news to report.

This guy didn’t eat much unless it was blood worms or brine shrimp. This meant in terms it has grown extremely slow.

Part of it not getting to eat much was because the parrots that were with it would hog all the food. I even started a culture of red wigglers worms to feed to this guy. I don’t think it even got 1 worm from the stash. Every time I would put the worms in the tt would miss it and the pigs (parrots)would eat them. This means the parrots were growing but not the eel.

The other day I looked over and the biggest parrot had the eel squirming out of its mouth like a spaghetti noodle. I freaked out and grabbed a net to save the eel. Got them separated, but not long after the parrot had it again by its head. By the time I got them separated from each other the eel was mentally messed up and swimming erratically. I ended up having to put the eel down.

It was a sad day indeed. My wife cried, and said we lost a member of our family today. I was like, wow that escalated fast. I didn’t even think she would like it.

I would like to have another try at the eel game some day. Try to grow it up to a full size, but that most likely won’t happen till after my move.

Looking back, should have tried either hand feeding it worms or even using forceps or something. Lesson learned I guess. Smh.

Sorry to hear this but I have a feeling you will get another Spiny Eel.

 

[kno4te]

Sometimes they do better w/o tankmates and eating well. Stress from acclimation and tankmates seem to really affect these fish when small.

Sorry for the loss.

 

[Matteus]

Ya it didn’t seem like it was stressed even from day 1 it seemed like it owned the tank. It just didn’t want to eat pellets (from what I saw) so it didn’t get a huge amount of nutrients from what I gather.

I would definitely like to try again some day. Very interesting creatures. Thank you for the condolences.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Ya it didn’t seem like it was stressed even from day 1 it seemed like it owned the tank. It just didn’t want to eat pellets (from what I saw) so it didn’t get a huge amount of nutrients from what I gather.

I would definitely like to try again some day. Very interesting creatures. Thank you for the condolences.

My fire eels don’t really eat pellets and never have. I got my first two when they were about 4” long. They pretty much only ate bloodworms for the first few months I had them. It worked out just fine. They did well with the bloodworms and I started introducing live red wigglers. It took a little bit but they started eating those too. Now, they eat pretty much anything but pellets and are pushing 27-28” long. Don’t discount the nutritional value of bloodworms if nothing else is working.

Very sorry to hear that you lost your eel.

If you get another one, I’ve found it best to put them in their own qt tank for a while to get them eating and allow them to put on some size before introducing them into the main tank. They can be quite stubborn and I almost lost my third one because it was very skinny when I got it and wouldn’t eat. I was persistent though and gave it a huge variety until I finally found what it wanted to eat (red wigglers). Now, it’s very healthy and is around 22”.

 

[Matteus]

Thank you all for your kind words. I will make sure my next eel will be solo for a good time.