Training stubborn fire eels to eat other foods

Rob909

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Aug 31, 2018
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Fontana, CA
This write up is my experience in getting a stubborn fire eel onto different types of food.



I purchased a fire eel which, like many, went on a hunger strike for a while once I brought it home. About a week. This eel started in a 10 gallon tank with a tiny flagtail, a bristlenose pleco, and a reedfish so I could get it used to being fed before adding it to the larger, more heavily stocked tank. Once I finally got it eating again, I realized it had no interest in blood worms or market shrimp. Two things I fed previous fire eels. Even though this is what the tank mates were eating already. No influence from other fish in the tank. I was forced to feed live nightcrawlers as it would not accept any frozen food or pellets. I knew I did not want to rely on live food the entire life of this eel, so a transition to frozen food was a must for me.



I realized in order to transition the eel onto other food sources, I’d have to bump up its feeding response. I developed a few steps in my head to make the transition despite how stubborn the eel was.

Step 1- increase feeding response

Step 2- trick the eel to eat different food

Step 3- full transition to the new food source



026BC299-CF00-4F54-AD00-0D8407A88086.jpeg
1EE43DB7-5ABA-4C9D-8944-A33FD1444234.jpeg

I began hand feeding the eel small pieces of nightcrawler that were still moving to entice the eel to eat. As time went on, the eel began to associate my hand with feeding. It came up to the surface of the water when I would approach the tank and took nightcrawlers from my hand with great enthusiasm. Eventually, moving or not, the eel would slurp the worms up like a vacuum right from my hands. Step 1 success.



Now that the eel was seeking out food from the water’s surface every time I came near the tank, I decided to proceed with step 2. I cut a sliver of market shrimp (my next target food) the size of the nightcrawler pieces I had been using. I approached the tank and received the same enthusiasm as usual, but as soon as the shrimp touched the water, the eel swam away. This happened every time I tried to offer shrimp. Admittedly, I was still regularly offering chunks of nightcrawler when the shrimp was refused. I recognized I’d have to try a bit harder to trick the eel into accepting the shrimp.

I began wiggling the shrimp slices in the water and got a little better response, but no bite. As I continued this, the eel lost even more interest.

Now I needed to fool the senses. Color, texture, smell, and taste were all off so I had to make the shrimp more worm like. I started working backward to make the WORM more SHRIMP like. I would start by thawing the shrimp in a small cup of water along with the pieces of worm. The worms began to take on the flavor of the “shrimp juice.” When offered, the eel reluctantly took the nightcrawlers soaked in worm juice, but feeding response increased after a short time. Now the eel was eating worm, but it had the taste of shrimp. My thought was the longer the eel ate worm with shrimp flavor, the more it would recognize shrimp as a familiar food source.

Convinced that success was near, I tried offering only the pieces of shrimp that were soaked with the worms. My fire eel, once again, proved to be more stubborn, and swam away from the shrimp cuts.
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I continued to offer shrimp the same way with no change in interest. I decided to squeeze the internals of the worm onto the shrimp, and stack a piece of shrimp with a piece of worm on top like a tiny sashimi. The eel finally took the shrimp believing it was eating worm. But only for about a quarter second. It spit the entire stack out, then swam back for the worm chunk. I was getting closer. Once he got the taste in his mouth, I knew he would eventually recognize it as food. I continued this until eventually the eel was taking the entire stack every time. The eel was finally tricked into eating the new food source. Step 2 success.
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Now to transition the eel completely off of worms, and onto shrimp. An offering of shrimp was still refused completely, so I continued the soak with worms and squeezed the worm’s internals onto the shrimp before offering. What I’ll refer to as “prepared shrimp.” It was hit or miss. Sometimes the eel would take just the shrimp, and other times it wouldn’t accept food unless it was accompanied by a chunk of worm. Eventually, the eel would eat the prepared shrimp without worm completely. Once it was consistently eating the prepared shrimp, I stopped the squeezings and only fed a shrimp chunk soaked with worms. As I’m sure you can guess, it began with reluctance, and ended with the eel on pure shrimp alone. Step 3 success.



Lessons learned here:

Find what an eel WILL eat, then set your goal based on the feeding response to the food it likes.

Hand feeding proved to be the key to my success because the fire eel was quick to recognize me as a source of food. It was eager to pull meals from my hand, and hand feeding allowed me to see EXACTLY what was being eaten, and exactly what was being left alone.

Although effective, (and highly nerve racking at times) starving a fish to get it hungry enough to try new foods does not always have to be the only option. I fed regularly and although it took a while, I was still successful.

I just had to get creative (and messy) with my approach to making one food item taste like another.



My fire eel is now 16” and eating three whole market shrimp per feeding. It also receives a small live crayfish as a treat on occasion. I don’t like to feed predatory fish live food because I don’t want to encourage them to eat my smaller fish, so it’s on a very rare occasion it gets the crayfish. I feed sparingly to keep it lean and keep the budget down.
84ABC2BB-949D-4AE8-8602-284D0A00147C.jpeg
My next goal is massivore delite which I’m now more than 2/3 complete on the transition so far. I was blown away to hear people were getting their eels on pellets so I applied this same experience to pellet training. In the near future, I will be doing a detailed write-up on the transition to pellets for those interested to follow along and attempt on their own.
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
23,258
24,119
1,660
Ohio
This write up is my experience in getting a stubborn fire eel onto different types of food.



I purchased a fire eel which, like many, went on a hunger strike for a while once I brought it home. About a week. This eel started in a 10 gallon tank with a tiny flagtail, a bristlenose pleco, and a reedfish so I could get it used to being fed before adding it to the larger, more heavily stocked tank. Once I finally got it eating again, I realized it had no interest in blood worms or market shrimp. Two things I fed previous fire eels. Even though this is what the tank mates were eating already. No influence from other fish in the tank. I was forced to feed live nightcrawlers as it would not accept any frozen food or pellets. I knew I did not want to rely on live food the entire life of this eel, so a transition to frozen food was a must for me.



I realized in order to transition the eel onto other food sources, I’d have to bump up its feeding response. I developed a few steps in my head to make the transition despite how stubborn the eel was.

Step 1- increase feeding response

Step 2- trick the eel to eat different food

Step 3- full transition to the new food source



View attachment 1460128
View attachment 1460129

I began hand feeding the eel small pieces of nightcrawler that were still moving to entice the eel to eat. As time went on, the eel began to associate my hand with feeding. It came up to the surface of the water when I would approach the tank and took nightcrawlers from my hand with great enthusiasm. Eventually, moving or not, the eel would slurp the worms up like a vacuum right from my hands. Step 1 success.



Now that the eel was seeking out food from the water’s surface every time I came near the tank, I decided to proceed with step 2. I cut a sliver of market shrimp (my next target food) the size of the nightcrawler pieces I had been using. I approached the tank and received the same enthusiasm as usual, but as soon as the shrimp touched the water, the eel swam away. This happened every time I tried to offer shrimp. Admittedly, I was still regularly offering chunks of nightcrawler when the shrimp was refused. I recognized I’d have to try a bit harder to trick the eel into accepting the shrimp.

I began wiggling the shrimp slices in the water and got a little better response, but no bite. As I continued this, the eel lost even more interest.

Now I needed to fool the senses. Color, texture, smell, and taste were all off so I had to make the shrimp more worm like. I started working backward to make the WORM more SHRIMP like. I would start by thawing the shrimp in a small cup of water along with the pieces of worm. The worms began to take on the flavor of the “shrimp juice.” When offered, the eel reluctantly took the nightcrawlers soaked in worm juice, but feeding response increased after a short time. Now the eel was eating worm, but it had the taste of shrimp. My thought was the longer the eel ate worm with shrimp flavor, the more it would recognize shrimp as a familiar food source.

Convinced that success was near, I tried offering only the pieces of shrimp that were soaked with the worms. My fire eel, once again, proved to be more stubborn, and swam away from the shrimp cuts.
View attachment 1460126
I continued to offer shrimp the same way with no change in interest. I decided to squeeze the internals of the worm onto the shrimp, and stack a piece of shrimp with a piece of worm on top like a tiny sashimi. The eel finally took the shrimp believing it was eating worm. But only for about a quarter second. It spit the entire stack out, then swam back for the worm chunk. I was getting closer. Once he got the taste in his mouth, I knew he would eventually recognize it as food. I continued this until eventually the eel was taking the entire stack every time. The eel was finally tricked into eating the new food source. Step 2 success.
View attachment 1460127
Now to transition the eel completely off of worms, and onto shrimp. An offering of shrimp was still refused completely, so I continued the soak with worms and squeezed the worm’s internals onto the shrimp before offering. What I’ll refer to as “prepared shrimp.” It was hit or miss. Sometimes the eel would take just the shrimp, and other times it wouldn’t accept food unless it was accompanied by a chunk of worm. Eventually, the eel would eat the prepared shrimp without worm completely. Once it was consistently eating the prepared shrimp, I stopped the squeezings and only fed a shrimp chunk soaked with worms. As I’m sure you can guess, it began with reluctance, and ended with the eel on pure shrimp alone. Step 3 success.



Lessons learned here:

Find what an eel WILL eat, then set your goal based on the feeding response to the food it likes.

Hand feeding proved to be the key to my success because the fire eel was quick to recognize me as a source of food. It was eager to pull meals from my hand, and hand feeding allowed me to see EXACTLY what was being eaten, and exactly what was being left alone.

Although effective, (and highly nerve racking at times) starving a fish to get it hungry enough to try new foods does not always have to be the only option. I fed regularly and although it took a while, I was still successful.

I just had to get creative (and messy) with my approach to making one food item taste like another.



My fire eel is now 16” and eating three whole market shrimp per feeding. It also receives a small live crayfish as a treat on occasion. I don’t like to feed predatory fish live food because I don’t want to encourage them to eat my smaller fish, so it’s on a very rare occasion it gets the crayfish. I feed sparingly to keep it lean and keep the budget down.
View attachment 1460130
My next goal is massivore delite which I’m now more than 2/3 complete on the transition so far. I was blown away to hear people were getting their eels on pellets so I applied this same experience to pellet training. In the near future, I will be doing a detailed write-up on the transition to pellets for those interested to follow along and attempt on their own.
That took patience but it paid off.
 

Rob909

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Aug 31, 2018
633
880
115
32
Fontana, CA
Pellet training my eel:

This started with an offering of many different types of pellets to gauge interest. Including my favorite for pellet training: hikari floating food sticks. These get soft and spongy when soaked in water and best of all, hold their shape. A squirt of water with a pipette makes these resemble an injured fish or worm at the surface.

Despite my efforts, the eel showed no interest in pellets. As previously mentioned, I applied my experience with shrimp to this as well.

AC442DB0-3BFA-4574-8164-9BE8904E4EC0.jpeg
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I began soaking the shrimp with massivore to get that pungent odor onto the shrimp. With it still being shrimp, the eel readily accepted the pre soaked food. Pellets were still refused at this time.

7561F610-F8DF-4E00-B7A2-FF5528996A4E.jpeg971FAB2E-39ED-42EF-9875-38322DC7C7E5.jpegA3F2575E-724D-4535-80B3-5AE832782B16.jpeg
I began making “pill pockets” out of the shrimp to add massivore to the eels diet discretely. I started by soaking a shrimp in a cup with massivore while the shrimp thawed. Once thawed, I used a knife to cut a slit in the thickest part of the shrimp. I stuffed the massivore pellet into the pocket and packed the opening with the massivore slime from the soaking cup. Admittedly, most of the slime would fall off as soon as it hit the water, but the other fish in the tank took care of that. Initially, the eel accepted the shrimp, but spit the pellet. A few more offerings proved successful and the eel was accepting the massivore within the pill pocket.

689E4135-FFF7-4B77-862E-4C97F3E0C713.jpeg
I continued this and added a second pellet to the thinner part of the shrimp. Sometimes they’d fall out while the eel snatched it, but for the most part, it stayed in place.

Now my eel was getting the flavor of the massivore, and a bit of the texture since I’d use a fresh pellet to put inside the shrimp.

Fast forward about two months of feeding stuffed shrimp, I approached the tank with stuffed shrimp and the soaked pellets. They were spongy and loosely held their shape if I was gentile. I fed my eel with the stuffed shrimp, then offered only a soaked pellet. To my surprise, the eel took the pellet, then spat it out. I knew I was getting closer. At this point, the eel was mouthing the pellets. I rewarded the eel with a stuffed shrimp and considered that feeding to be progress.

The next feeding, I offered ONLY a shrimp soaked pellet, without any shrimp. The eel blew me away when it accepted the pellet, and did not spit it out.

I continued to feed 5 more pellets that had been soaked. The eel took the first, didn’t see the second or third pass right by his head, but ate the fourth and fifth completely.

Next, I offered only dry pellets. First pellet was taken but spit out immediately. Not even long enough for a taste or chew. I offered 4 more pellets this way and all were completely ignored.
To continue my progress, I fed the eel 4 pellets soaked with shrimp. All were taken without issue. The eel is now on massivore delite soaked with shrimp. I offered a dry pellet and the eel took it, held it in his mouth, chewed it a couple times, then spit it out.

I dipped a dry pellet in the leftover shrimp juice, and it was spit out again. A couple more tries with this led to the same results. Looks like it’s the texture the eel isn’t happy with.

For the next feeding, I soaked the pellets in tank water to see if the eel will accept them without the shrimp flavor. He was hesitant because of the lack of shrimp flavor, but took all 6 pellets offered.

I don’t know if I’ll ever get the eel on dry pellets, but I’ll keep trying.



I will be updating this thread with any new developments. I truly hope this helps anyone trying to pellet train eels and other tricky fish.
 

louiscoolboy

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
May 3, 2008
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NY
Thanks for sharing, and kudos to you with such patience. Mine went starving for more than a month, and still refused to take pellet, and i gave in at the end.
 
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Rob909

Peacock Bass
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Aug 31, 2018
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Fontana, CA
Thanks for sharing, and kudos to you with such patience. Mine went starving for more than a month, and still refused to take pellet, and i gave in at the end.
I’ve given in quite a few times, this was by no means an effort over a short period. It wasn’t until I was consistent that I started getting success.
My eel is now strictly on pellets that have been softened in tank water, with the occasional shrimp and nightcrawler as treats.
I’m still hoping I can get it onto hard pellets, but the preparation has gotten MUCH easier now that it’s on strictly pellets.
 

Rocksor

Blue Tier VIP
MFK Member
Nov 28, 2011
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I know that your end goal is hard pellets. But do you think if you used gel food like Repashy, which is considerably softer than pellets, that the transition from shrimp to prepared food would have been easier? (You would have had to use the shrimp water to prepare the gel food.)
 

Rob909

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Aug 31, 2018
633
880
115
32
Fontana, CA
I know that your end goal is hard pellets. But do you think if you used gel food like Repashy, which is considerably softer than pellets, that the transition from shrimp to prepared food would have been easier? (You would have had to use the shrimp water to prepare the gel food.)
that’s an interesting idea I never thought of. Let me see if I follow you here: use repashy as the pill pocket instead of shrimp? Or take pellets completely out of the equation?
 

Rocksor

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Nov 28, 2011
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that’s an interesting idea I never thought of. Let me see if I follow you here: use repashy as the pill pocket instead of shrimp? Or take pellets completely out of the equation?
Yes and yes, whichever is easier for you.

If you put the pellet with the dry repashy powder and mix them with boiled water, it would make the hard pellet soft when you put it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. Gel dry mix should by twice the amount of pellets added. This can add more of the taste of the pellets.

Or simply remove the pellet out of the mix. Feed the same day or the next. On a side note, the longer it is left in the fridge, the harder it gets. A 1/4” thick disc is rock solid by the end of week 2. So you can let it harden every few days until you find the sweet spot for your cutting ease and one that doesn’t break up too easily in water

I recommend Repashy Bottom Scratcher. Instructions say 3:1water:powder but you can do 2:1 if you want it stiffer.
 
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Rob909

Peacock Bass
MFK Member
Aug 31, 2018
633
880
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32
Fontana, CA
Yes and yes, whichever is easier for you.

If you put the pellet with the dry repashy powder and mix them with boiled water, it would make the hard pellet soft when you put it uncovered in the refrigerator overnight. Gel dry mix should by twice the amount of pellets added. This can add more of the taste of the pellets.

Or simply remove the pellet out of the mix. Feed the same day or the next. On a side note, the longer it is left in the fridge, the harder it gets. A 1/4” thick disc is rock solid by the end of week 2. So you can let it harden every few days until you find the sweet spot for your cutting ease and one that doesn’t break up too easily in water

I recommend Repashy Bottom Scratcher. Instructions say 3:1water:powder but you can do 2:1 if you want it stiffer.
Okay gotcha. So basically making my own pellet, but a bit softer. Repashy is nice to have on hand frozen in ice cube trays for the larger plecos so maybe I could try a batch for the eel one day!
 
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