Eel won't eat

[Jasonrusso]

Three weeks ago I my wartskin angler suddenly died. At that point I realized that my Mombassa Lion wasn't eating, and I lost him a week later. The only thing I could link between the two was likely contaminated food (frozen silverslides) which I was feeding them both. I don't feel that it is water quality, because my porcupine puffer and harelquin tusk are eating normally and show NO signs of distress. That is why I think it was the food.

I also have a Dwarf Golden Moray eel. I've had him for nearly 3 years and I usually feed him every 3-4 days. At the same time I noticed my lion stop eating, I also noticed that the eel hadn't eaten either. It has been maybe 3 weeks and he will not eat. He actually turns away and moves to the other side of his rock when I put a silverslide in front of him.

He is really showing no signs of distress. His breathing appears normal and he is as active as an eel can be. He reaches out when I walk up to the tank but WILL NOT EAT!

I bought some live ghost shrimp and gut load them daily. The first one I put in went right behind a rock near the eel and it appeared that he may have eaten it. It looked like he went for a strike and I saw sand kick up, but it was behind a rock so I couldn't see. I keep putting in shrimp at night hoping that he is eating them. There also seems to be a bunch of empty shells in front of his area. Is he eating my snails and crabs (whatever survived, see puffer and tusk) at night?

Is there any sure fire food they will eat that will calm my nerves? I have tried grocery store shrimp (puffer loves it), half shell clams, silver slides, and he eats none of it. He may also be eating uneaten krill that the puffer leaves behind.

He has gone on hunger strikes before, but never this long. 2 weeks was the longest. I also know they can live for a month+ without eating, but I really want to see him eat SOMETHING.

 

[54seaweed]

Hi Jason ,
I used to only feed frozen but a lot of fish need that proactive stimulation of chasing and catching there prey ,
Yes its true many types of predatory fish can be trained to eat frozen , pellets ect , even though they show interest in these foods they still need to be enticed to eat , in many cases I find this more often than not with all saltwater fish they get bored of eating frozen , This is why I always try to keep live saltwater feeders onhand ,
live shrimp and also minnows , you would be surprised how a few live feeders every day or so improves the life style of your fish , it also helps extend a fishes life in captivity , live feeders actually help a fishes coloring and activeness and also curves a lot of aggression in some fish that others always claim wouldn't make a difference if fed a live diet or a frozen , I researched both on my tanks and yes you will see a difference in about a weeks time , no gold fish really have no nutritional value they work but just don't satisfy the nutritional needs , I found a online place with the best prices on feeders in all my days , I will pm that link to you ,
ever since I went back to live feeders the coloring is more brilliant and aggression is almost to a halt , you would be surprised which fish eat live feeders 85% eat live
that eel needs to be enticed before he eats one of your prize fish or dies

 

[Reefing Madness]

I used to feed mine Live Gold Fish. He should go right after them.

 

[Jasonrusso]

Is that OK to feed fresh water fish? I've always read that's bad

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[Sniperhank]

Feeding only one thing for anything can be bad. It'd be like eating only McDoubles for every meal...just little nutritional value rather than a heart related incident before the end of the month.


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[54seaweed]

when I have no saltwater feeders I feed my guys gold fish predators love to hunt

 

[Reefing Madness]

Your trying to get him to eat. Gotta try it or he'll likely starve. Get him to eat, then wean him off of them.

 

[Jasonrusso]

That's what I was thinking as well. The local pet store has goldfish and rosy reds.

 

[Reefing Madness]

Just need the feeder goldfish. nothing fancy.

 

[54seaweed]

feeder goldfish are like 10cents ea@ , but if you can get feeder guppy's they will last longer in saltwater

 

[Jasonrusso]

He finally ate tonight!! I'm so happy and relieved. I've been trying frozen silversides because if he doesn't take them my Tusk eats them. He sniffed it for a second then devoured it! ?

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[54seaweed]

good to here you got him eating , all the time he wasn't he could have been eating inverts , as I did notice you said you kept finding empty shells ,
even though you got him eating again I would still on occasion give him some live feeders even cleaner clams , my engineer goby loves them and they have lots of nutrition

 

[Jasonrusso]

What's a cleaner clam? I've bought a lot of varied food over the years, mussels, steamer clams, oysters, etc, and he doesn't eat them. All I can do with the live food is put it on there and hope he finds it at some point overnight. If he wants to eat snails and crabs so be it, I'll buy them occasionally, but he's competing with a puffer and a harlequin Tusk. He might lose that one.

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