Moray eel wont eat!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Freshwater fish guy]

Don't know why but he won't eat please help

 

[librarygirl]

Some more info would help. Is this a new fish? What size tank and what tank mates does it have? Is this a new behavior (e.g. has it eaten before and then stopped)? Is the tank new? Is it cycled? What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate readings? What foods have you tried?

 

[Freshwater fish guy]

No tank mates .in a 60 g tank.he is new the tank has bean cycled . Had the tank for a month and a half. Tried ghost shrimp krill blood worms and pellets

 

[starlight682]

how big is the eel ? have you tried just putting some live feeder fish in the tank and turning off the lights? always worked for my eel, i'd wake up and all the feeder gold fish would be gone lol
also eels can take up to a month to get use to the tank and eat properly

do you have a bunch of hiding places for him ?

 

[Freshwater fish guy]

Yes a lot of hiding places and I had danios in my tank and there missing would he eat them or would my 6 inch needle nose gar eat them I had 3 zebra danio and now there gone the eel is about 14 inch

 

[vanimal]

Try feeder fish just to get him eating, feeder minnows are better than goldfish. Try shrimp. I have a Fire Eel and I buy a bag of frozen shrimp feom the grocery store and he likes those but rip it up into smaller pieces.

 

[Cichlid Kid]

You could also try earthworms in subdued lighting.

 

[TommyP]

It could of been your eel or the gar that ate your smaller fish. That's what they do. Is he active? Let us know if the feeder fish help and I hope he starts to eat soon. There are a couple different types of morays which kind do you have? Some require a bigger tank from the research I've done.

 

[Freshwater fish guy]

Something tile

 

[starlight682]

ok i assume you mean Gymnothorax tile better know as a "freshwater moray eel" the name is deceiving because while these eels do travel in the wild to freshwater to spawn they mostly live in saltwater
and in the home aquarium they do best in brackish water
i'm not that familiar with the gar but, i looked it up and it looks to be freshwater and aggressive and can also reach a length of 1-1 1/2 foot long and is better suited in a larger tank fresh water tank

the eel and the gar shouldn't live together sorry
while the eel is a carnivore they are very shy docile creatures in my experience and stress very easily in the first few month (which is when most deaths will occur)
when i had my moray eel i would hand feed him live gold fish (which he loved) they have poor eyesight though so be careful a moray eel bite doesn't feel very good and i still have a scare on my hand from when he missed and got me instead of the fish