tiger moray only eats shrimp

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tongolino10

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May 26, 2023
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my tiger morays have finally calmed down and not exhibited too much aggression amongst each other.

has anyone got success weaning them off frozen ghost shrimp? mine eat those and nothing else, ignoring any small feeder fish or pieces of fish I place for them. my concern with ghost shrimp would be thiaminase levels as well as inadequate nutrition.

also, does anyone have issues with them long term >3 years from eating just ghost shrimp?
 
Not a tiger moray but I have a skeletor moray in SW. I have much the same issue though where they have a clear preference for shrimp/ prawns. I’m able to get it to take other frozen fish by presenting it on a skewer near its den. It’ll then pop out and take it, I don’t think their eyesight is great and perhaps shrimp have a stronger smell.

Also, I’m not sure whether other fish necessarily contain no thiaminase but possibly less. A vitamin soak may be wise. Alternatively, I’m not sure what the thermal stability of thiaminase is like so cooking may attenuate its activity. This would likely destroy some of the other nutritional value though.
 
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Lotsoffishandthings said:
Not a tiger moray but I have a skeletor moray in SW. I have much the same issue though where they have a clear preference for shrimp/ prawns. I’m able to get it to take other frozen fish by presenting it on a skewer near its den. It’ll then pop out and take it, I don’t think their eyesight is great and perhaps shrimp have a stronger smell.

Also, I’m not sure whether other fish necessarily contain no thiaminase but possibly less. A vitamin soak may be wise. Alternatively, I’m not sure what the thermal stability of thiaminase is like so cooking may attenuate its activity. This would likely destroy some of the other nutritional value though.
Click to expand...
Have you tried feeding squid. Many years ago had a snowflake moray and it loved squid.
 
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tlindsey said:
Have you tried feeding squid. Many years ago had a snowflake moray and it loved squid.
Click to expand...

good point, I did feed squid to my SW morays in the past when I used to keep them too. Not too sure if squid contains thiaminase though, I've seen conflicting reports
 
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tlindsey said:
Have you tried feeding squid. Many years ago had a snowflake moray and it loved squid.
Click to expand...

Yeah it’ll take squid. I think the diet of snowflakes, skelators, zebras etc is more invert heavy so makes sense they’d prefer inverts in captivity. Not sure about FW/ brackish eels though, I think they’re the sharp tooth vs pebble tooth variety so presumably more piscivorous.

tongolino10 said:
good point, I did feed squid to my SW morays in the past when I used to keep them too. Not too sure if squid contains thiaminase though, I've seen conflicting reports
Click to expand...

Yeah it’s a tough one isn’t it, I’m also not sure whether it’s synthesised by the organism itself or by bacteria in the gut. Maybe this is why we seems to not see as prevalent effects when feeding chunks of tilapia or other filleted fish. Squid is cleaned prior to sale usually so this should be safer if it’s gut bacteria making the thiaminase.
 
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Difficult but not impossible. Tiger moray is programmed to eat meat. But stuff one pellet the smallest one in size into one piece of shrimp and try feeding it to the moray.
But ensure that pellet is completely covered
 
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