hey i have a 9inch snowflake eel that ate about 3 or four days ago...i tried feeding last nite and this morning tried mussles and calamaria and he does not seem interested..params are normal nitrate nitrite and ammo and ph all almost undetectable...the only thing that i change was i got on new piece of live rock and i moved the aquascaping around...could he be freaked out cuz his enviornment has suddenly changed and doesnt want to eat??? everyone else in the tank is eating perfectly fine
snowflake eel not eating all of a sudden
- Thread starter karllenz87
- Start date
im still worried here stil have not seen my eel eat at all i just did a larger water change to see if that will help
It could be the eel getting used to the new aquascape, or it could be the eel just 'being an eel'. My snowflake does the same thing, sometimes it will go without eating for over a week, then other times it will be a pig and want to be fed everyday. i'd just let it go for now, keep offering the food and see how it goes. (its not going to harm them having no food for a few days, as in nature they can go for weeks without food)
It be quite normal to see ones eel not feed all too often, or even that they go on a long hunger strike. All to often , one eel that I had for more then 14 years has gone on as long a hunger strike as 5.5 months. Reasons for this, that will depend much on the hobbyist on how their doing things within their tanks. For some of the other causes other then normal happenings be if your Ph is too low, and salinity and temp comes into play as well. One other long term in keeping a healthy eel is, water quality and a variety and nutritional diet. Your tank as of now for so young a sfe is OK for now, but a 55 for an adult sfe is another manner however.
Sure, you will find others that would agree with you, and having a lionfish as well in a 55, and then your an adult sfe, and most likely your some ideas to have any number of other fish. This however will put stress on your eel in due time. If you do get a lionfish, get the drawf for it not grows as large, if you get the larger growing lionfish, you be requiring yourself a much larger tank.
The bottom line here is, for an adult sfe, I would have no smaller then a 75 gal tank for it, and then larger when your plans to have any other number of fish. So what you should do is this, make a small selection of marine species you like to have, and then see which would do ok with the other and what size tank you should have. One of the worst was of planning things is, doing it as your planning it. And do research before buying anything.
If your a fresh sea food market near you, go their for your fresh crab meat, and be careful, if you not like the odor or color texture of any seafoods, then not feed it to your eel. Another food you can try is thin small pieces of squid, but not too soft, it must be crunchy to the bite. And try to buy this that isn't setting around in the open air, for if its submerge in water, it should be fine, but if exposed to the open air, I not buy it, but request for some other squid tubes from their ice box.
One thing, if your a mind to keep any eel, know that it not feeds each and every day, and when you feed it, you feed until it refuses any more offerings of food. Feeders and silversides are a bad choice, it may be one thing when trying to get the eel started into feeding, but long term, it not healthy for the eel.
myself in this feeding, when I keep eels in their only eel tanks, I feed them once a week, even the goldentails, dwarf eels however are a different matter, they feed when they want, when im feeding the fish in the tank.
One last thing here, before it escapes me. Eels will not deal all too well with high nitrate levels, so do try to keep it no higher then 20 PPM or less would be far better. Good Luck :thm:
Buddy
Sure, you will find others that would agree with you, and having a lionfish as well in a 55, and then your an adult sfe, and most likely your some ideas to have any number of other fish. This however will put stress on your eel in due time. If you do get a lionfish, get the drawf for it not grows as large, if you get the larger growing lionfish, you be requiring yourself a much larger tank.
The bottom line here is, for an adult sfe, I would have no smaller then a 75 gal tank for it, and then larger when your plans to have any other number of fish. So what you should do is this, make a small selection of marine species you like to have, and then see which would do ok with the other and what size tank you should have. One of the worst was of planning things is, doing it as your planning it. And do research before buying anything.
If your a fresh sea food market near you, go their for your fresh crab meat, and be careful, if you not like the odor or color texture of any seafoods, then not feed it to your eel. Another food you can try is thin small pieces of squid, but not too soft, it must be crunchy to the bite. And try to buy this that isn't setting around in the open air, for if its submerge in water, it should be fine, but if exposed to the open air, I not buy it, but request for some other squid tubes from their ice box.
One thing, if your a mind to keep any eel, know that it not feeds each and every day, and when you feed it, you feed until it refuses any more offerings of food. Feeders and silversides are a bad choice, it may be one thing when trying to get the eel started into feeding, but long term, it not healthy for the eel.
myself in this feeding, when I keep eels in their only eel tanks, I feed them once a week, even the goldentails, dwarf eels however are a different matter, they feed when they want, when im feeding the fish in the tank.
One last thing here, before it escapes me. Eels will not deal all too well with high nitrate levels, so do try to keep it no higher then 20 PPM or less would be far better. Good Luck :thm:
Buddy
thanks so much that was great info iv read alot of your posts and the sfe finally ate today not to much about 2 pieces of squid and a mussle and i do feed frozen seafood from my market...i did get a lion and have plans for upgrading the tank to 150 or 200 gallon system in the next 6-8 months as soon as im out of this stupid apartment....you say young eel i figuered he may be kinda old considering he is as long as my for arm about 10inches....the ones i useaullly see at the store are the size of my ring finger they look real cute small...the girl friends wants to put one in her 20gallon but i quickly said no..when i 1st got the eel he was really active at night and would come out and swim about now he isnt nearly as active is this a bad sign he found this great hiding spot in some tonga branch rock and really doesnt tend to leave unless feeding....niether the lion or the very small green spotted puffer mess with the eel at all (but i do think i will be selling the green spot because i can't seem to keep and inverts alive with the puffer around he has destroyed every snail i put into the tank but he leave the chocolatechip star and hermits alone.
10 inches is indeed a young eel. In the wild they get close to 3 feet, but generally top out from 25-28 inches in captivity. The grocery stores usually sell mixed bags of frozen sea food for making stir fry, which is an excellent price for the amount of "eel food" you get out of it, not to mention it's got a nice variety. I hope you have a really good tank top. They tend to find their way out of the smallest openings!
Im always glad of it if what I have to say do offer those of my own personal experiences to do within keeping eels. Also know, where you said it feed, but not much. Your eel will at many times, feed very little to where other days it will eat like a big. Now I do tend too forget things, I not remember that if I mentioned about keeping your tanks Ph stabled at all time, you must hav e no huge swing. I hope that your Ph is at least around 8.3, and if it drops to 8-0 or less, it will take its toll on your eels dieting.
But in whatever you manage to get your eel to eat, be sure that it be what you would want as well. As well, in the wild, these eels unlike eels like the Tess, green or yellowhead morays, feeds day or nite. Were as eels like the sfe or so, will only mostly come out hunting after dusk.
Now realize that I said, they come out after dusk, for eels in our home aquariums aren't an expert escape artist, but rather due too their normal activity, they move about every inch of your tank in the dark, and in doing so, will find any opening that you may have and will go carpet surfering.
Ìf it is that you gotten yourself the larger growing lionfish, you will then have serious problems in what fish you may be able to have as well, or rather, you will have issues to which fish you be able to have. Think in this if this is what you really want to have, its not too late to return the lion to your lfs.
Really now, I had a pair in a 30 gal long tank, dwarf eels that is, and later found that it was better too have them in a larger tank with other med size fishes. Allow me to explain too you this understanding.
If you are too have just an eel or two in your tank, know this that eels, no matter in what their growth size be, they are very messy animals and she would have to do more often water changes too keep up within her tanks water quality.
When mixing any number of fish with your eel, your ell depending on its own aggressive behavior may tend to feel intimidated by any number of tank mates, the other be is that , it is in their nature to avoid danger when possible. This differs none even with species like the tessslata or green morays, they are all with a docile side to them, no matter what be their level of aggressiveness.
For one thing, did you know that your pufferfish is a brackish water species? That when are juveniles, their water salinity should be 1.005-08, and when adults, be at 1.018. Yes, it could be in higher salinity water, but for how long it be advised in doing so? The other thing, puffers will eat everything that they can, and those that you mention is a huge part of their wide diet range. And their require Ph level is at 8.0.
Im sorry Mindcrime121, but i tend to differ from what is your understanding in the eels maximum growth range. For if you are to keep top excellent water quality all its life and a wide variety of seafoods in its diet, which by me is having as well, fresh or live crabs, you would find that the eel would grow too its full potential. Also, the eel takes years to grow, not just a few or five years.
Again, what is more important here? "Quantity or Quality"? When talking about the long term health of your eel, we need to go way above the standards then too concern ourselves in what we save from buying what you may think to be idea. the other is, you not know how long that freezer bag was in that store or how long its be frozen for. So it matters not in which foods one buys for their tank inhabitants, we need to be very aware of possible food poisoning too our fish. Me, I will stick to buying fresh, and freeze myself in air tight packages, I a machine that wraps and sucks out all the air and then seals it.
I had already said something to this effect, so lets ask you this, have you a glass top? I kind of already feel that your not a sump. I also hope that your not simply using a canister filter, but rather a skimmer instead. Your a small tank, with two messy eaters, so if your a canister filter only, do look into switching to a skimmer, and the best one you can afford.
Buddy
Regarding the mix sea food bags sold at the grocery stores, they are of human consumption grade with clams, octopus, shrimp and other items commonly on the menu for eels, and have a "best used by" date printed on the bag by the source. Regarding general maximum size in a tank, this information was from an article I read and a few other sources I ran across agreed with it, although I agree that they do grow relatively slowly toward their maximum size and most keepers probably don't have "perfect" condition in which they would reach the same as they would in the wild, hence the "average" max size in a tank being slightly smaller. In my own experience, I had a hang on back type skimmer which was designed with a riser and outflow similar to a HOT filter, and the tank top had an opening to allow for the flat return to pour back into the tank. This was where I believe my first one escaped. My second was in an 18T tank with an Eclypse system top which I believed to be "enclosed" but this one found a much smaller escape route. This, by the way, was when I was very new to marine tanks, but I did have a 60 gallon in the garage and my itentions were to transfer it to the larger tank when it got bigger.