Stunted fire eel

[giltaripoulus]

Hi guys. So me and my body one day decided to get fire eels as soon as they arrived 2 our lfs. The problem is that he dsnt like to read and have not much kwnoledge on fish. My fire eel is huge right now. Like 15" he's still 7 or 8"inches after months of having them. So he decided to give me the fish to give it a shot. Mine eats market shrimp. Hes only eats earthworms. And i cant get her to eat anything else... so in these cases. What happen to the fish?it hasent grew nothing literaly.
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[giltaripoulus]

Anyone?? I dont know what to do. My eel is like the double of hes.. today i went to check his tank. The water parameters are awefull. Help him some water change. I currently have the fire eel in a cycled 10 galon. By himself and a cave... so what happen to this fish? It is possible to grow? Will this have repercutions later?
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[Drstrangelove]

I'd put him in something a little bigger, but for now he is probably acclimating to being moved. Does the 10 gallon have sand? Gravel will irritate him. If he's well fed, he can stand to be starved a bit to switch foods. You could raise the temp to encourage hunger and possibly add some garlic to the shrimp pieces.

If the earthworms were gut fed or filled with pellets, he might be okay. Otherwise he's been low on many nutrients. Long term, most if not all fish will fail to reach full size if they are poorly fed for too long.

 

[MonsterMinis]

nightcrawlers are actually better then market shrimp imo. its likely stunted from the poor water quality. given good perameters and plenty of food there is a good chance he will play catch-up.. the problem with stunting by water conditions is its hard to tell how much actual internal damage has been done, and even gill tissue compromization... If hes doing well and eating in general w/ some TLC he oughta start growing again. Also be wary of IPs.. they can cause stunting as well since they rob the fish of nutrients ect... once hes settled in an eating ect in your care before moving him w/ anyone else I would do a precautionary dose of prazi-pro and see if he blows any worms for you. i'de say over 90% of the spiney eels I've ever owned had IP's

What nutrients are nightcrawlers lacking? from my research they are extreamly diverse in their nutrient values vs market shrimp/tilapia ect?

 

[Drstrangelove]

http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF00240919

Great question. I've never been able to find much on metrics for earthworms/ night crawlers beyond protein, fat, ash, calcium and phosphorous. In the attached study on trout however, fish did poorly as more and more earthworms were included in the diet. By implication, something would seem to be missing.


http://www.academicjournals.org/IJFA/PDF/pdf2013/Sep/Dedeke et al.pdf

Here is a second study with African catfish that found that replacing a 100% fish meal diet with earthworms (as meal) was favorable up to 25% of the diet, after which added earthworms had a negative effect on growth.


http://www.aensiweb.com/aeb/2008/96-100.pdf

Third study on gourami. Fish fed exclusively earthworm meal did not perform the best in growth.


http://www.lrrd.org/lrrd22/11/Nhi22204.htm

Tra catfish and Marble goby both showed reduced growth and higher death rates as earthworms were increased in the diet up to 100%.



I'm not suggesting that they aren't as good as tilapia or shrimp. Just not perfect by themselves.