Vitachem dosing frequency for fire eel ?

[DrownedFishonFire]

Im starting to kick it up a notch and start to incorporate vitachem that my fire eel has stalled out in the 22” range (doesnt look like any gains in 4 months) and her appetite lately has really vamped up but growth seems same. Im more concerned about her stalling out on gridth and growth now I cut her off on earthcrawlers (lack of availability at this time of the year with unpredictable weather no ice fishing) as she has been 22” for some time now that holiday craze is over I can focus on details of my fish better.

The vitachem arrived yesterday. Directions was vague on details. Said to dose 1 drop per gal on water and few drops on food. That was it. i put in 6 drops worth on the shrimp today that she gobbled up. I ordered the syringe with blunt 24g needle to put inside shrimp better so theres no waste supposed to arrive on Sunday.

My question is how often should I be giving her vitamins and how much should I be aiming for for a fish her size?

 

[RD.]

What do you typically feed, daily/weekly?

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

What do you typically feed, daily/weekly?

She gets fed every other day or 3rd day depending on my work schedule its mainly back to every other day she gets fed now.

She was eating avg of entire can of earthworm in a sitting 18 canadian crawlers I was giving that to her at least once a week if available. Its been an awful winter for ice fishing here so not many places have crawlers at the moment and last time i checked Walmart they only had the tiny red wrigglers. I feed those to my axoltols.

Her main protein is defrosted raw shelled shrimp (maybe 7-12 small/medium shrimp in one sitting depending on size?) she also gets mussels some with some of the feedings when they are on sale or whenever im at a specific store for them. The bag of mussels disappears fast I separate the shell/meat for her. Not alot of protein IMO per bag when it comes to mussels/clams

Shes now at the point where she greedily gulps her food without inspecting it so I might get away with sneaking in some repashy gel bits. She didnt spit out the first piece of shrimp when I pumped it with some of vitachem via syringe method. I make sure its the first bite she has and wait it out for at least 15 minutes before continuing to feed her. I have other fish to feed too and make my rounds. Its been few times so far so good.

 

[RD.]

Ok, sounds good. I was just checking to see if yours ate any pellets. Some do, some don't. It's been a lot of years since I used Vitachem, but I either presoaked the food for several hours prior to feeding, or did what you are doing with the syringe, 2-3 times (or shrimp) a week as a supplement. A little goes a long ways. You seem to have the feeding part figured out.

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

RD.

Been trying to convince her to take pellets and gave up on that idea. I used to sneak some in the shrimp bits and she would spit the pellets out of her gills kind of quit trying to do that last year when i saw her doing the trick of kicking it out of her gills when rearranging the shrimp bits in her stomach.