Banded Eel - Building a Hide?

Reverend Turtle · Aug 17, 2020

Raw shrimp, white fish, small bits of squid, all good choices. But yes, feed about 30 mins after lights out.

ChrissFishes01 · Aug 17, 2020

Thanks for the tips! The store I work at gets fish in on Wednesdays, so I'll get a few ghost shrimp then.

I saw him out this morning - he didn't eat anything, but seemed much more relaxed than the last time I saw him.

Hugh Mann · Aug 18, 2020

Different species of eel, but my lfs told me they use emerald crabs to get reluctant eels to eat. A bit pricey perhaps, and would require quarantine, but if all else fails...

Here is my eel, chilling beside the cave I made.

Reverend Turtle · Aug 18, 2020

Hugh Mann said:
Different species of eel, but my lfs told me they use emerald crabs to get reluctant eels to eat. A bit pricey perhaps, and would require quarantine, but if all else fails...

Here is my eel, chilling beside the cave I made.

When I worked in a lfs, I would use crayfish and fiddler crabs as feeders. Occasionally we would actually be able to order marine feeder crabs, but they weren't available all the time.

ChrissFishes01 · Aug 18, 2020

I could easily get red claw crabs from work (I use them for my puffers from time-to-time), but I doubt this guy could handle much more than a ghost shrimp. His mouth is pretty tiny.

Reverend Turtle · Aug 18, 2020

HarrisonAquatics said:
I could easily get red claw crabs from work (I use them for my puffers from time-to-time), but I doubt this guy could handle much more than a ghost shrimp. His mouth is pretty tiny.

Yeah, I was leaning to more of an in general, as emerald crabs are kind of expensive.

Hugh Mann · Aug 18, 2020

HarrisonAquatics said:
I could easily get red claw crabs from work (I use them for my puffers from time-to-time), but I doubt this guy could handle much more than a ghost shrimp. His mouth is pretty tiny.

You'd be surprised at what a moray can swallow. Having a set of pharyngeal Jaws helps get big stuff down. Or they shred it and make a huge mess. My greyfaced, about 14" long once swallowed a full grown Peppermint shrimp whole. (That's what you get for eating coral)

But yeah, ghost shrimp should do just fine as live feeders, but any crustacean will do in a pinch. Best of luck with this one!

Reverend Turtle · Aug 18, 2020

Hugh Mann said:
You'd be surprised at what a moray can swallow. Having a set of pharyngeal Jaws helps get big stuff down. Or they shred it and make a huge mess. My greyfaced, about 14" long once swallowed a full grown Peppermint shrimp whole. (That's what you get for eating coral)

But yeah, ghost shrimp should do just fine as live feeders, but any crustacean will do in a pinch. Best of luck with this one!

True, moray eels can eat foods that would normally be to large, but snake eels aren't morays. I don't know that they have the pharyngeal jaws that morays have, but seeing as they don't seem to keen on going after foods that are bigger around than they are, I'm only guessing that they dont.

Hugh Mann · Aug 18, 2020

For some reason I thought I saw in the thread it was a moray. My bad.

Reverend Turtle · Aug 18, 2020

Hugh Mann said:
For some reason I thought I saw in the thread it was a moray. My bad.

To some, all eels are morays.

fishguy242 · Aug 18, 2020

i strongly recommend quarter to third thawed cocktail shrimp as a starter for him,soak it in a little bit of tank water pour water into tank,he will poke out then stick feed

ChrissFishes01 · Aug 18, 2020

Been trying to tempt him with raw gulf shrimp - no luck so far. Going to try again tonight. Lights just went out!

ChrissFishes01 · Aug 19, 2020

Still no luck (to my knowledge). Still not eating - just pushes live ghosties out of the way.

I'm rinsing another 25 lbs of aragonite right now to add to the tank. He's found a spot to hide out, and only comes out in the early AM - but I'm hoping that with a thicker sandbed, he'll be a bit more comfortable.

lion king · Aug 19, 2020

Was he treated for internal parasites, eels come in with them often, and it does inhibit them from eating. Yet so does stress and giving him a more comfortable home will help.

ChrissFishes01 · Aug 19, 2020

In my FOWLRs, any time I add a new fish, I dose the food with Focus and Metro. I usually use the poop to gauge parasite issues, but haven't seen him enough to know if he's pooping or not...

It's been around a week. If this continues, I'll move him out to a tank where I can treat the water column with Metro and Prazi, and go from there.

Reverend Turtle · Aug 21, 2020

Ok, so another trick to try. Get a glass bottle, soda or beer works best due to the narrow opening. I like corona bottles, clear and no paper label. Put a cube of frozen food, squid, krill, predator blend, just something meaty, in the bottle and place it in the tank just before the lights go out.
The bottle opening will be too small for most other fish, but perfect for a small eel to get in to. It also has the benefit of keeping the food in one place. If he's hungry, his nose will take him to the bottle. If he eats there will be less food than you put in.
This is also a good way to catch bristle worms. Anyway, try each night, eventually hopefully he will eat.

lion king · Aug 21, 2020

HarrisonAquatics said:
In my FOWLRs, any time I add a new fish, I dose the food with Focus and Metro. I usually use the poop to gauge parasite issues, but haven't seen him enough to know if he's pooping or not...

It's been around a week. If this continues, I'll move him out to a tank where I can treat the water column with Metro and Prazi, and go from there.

Dosing the water column works best for an eel because of feeding habits. Unless you are able to get the eel to take amonts of dosed food daily it is not effective. Difficult and predatory fish that only eat a couple times a week, dosing in food is usually not practical

ChrissFishes01 · Aug 21, 2020

Reverend Turtle said:
Ok, so another trick to try. Get a glass bottle, soda or beer works best due to the narrow opening. I like corona bottles, clear and no paper label. Put a cube of frozen food, squid, krill, predator blend, just something meaty, in the bottle and place it in the tank just before the lights go out.
The bottle opening will be too small for most other fish, but perfect for a small eel to get in to. It also has the benefit of keeping the food in one place. If he's hungry, his nose will take him to the bottle. If he eats there will be less food than you put in.
This is also a good way to catch bristle worms. Anyway, try each night, eventually hopefully he will eat.

Thanks for the tip! I'll give it a try.

lion king said:
Dosing the water column works best for an eel because of feeding habits. Unless you are able to get the eel to take amonts of dosed food daily it is not effective. Difficult and predatory fish that only eat a couple times a week, dosing in food is usually not practical

Noted! Thank you.

He's made a den of sorts - a small hole in sand that I see him peak out of from time to time. I've been leaving small chunks of food next to it, and the food does disappear overnight, but it's hard to say if it's the eel or other animals. I'll give the bottle trick a shot.

ChrissFishes01 · Nov 11, 2020

Alright, so a couple months later, this guy is awesome. He takes food from tongs, and seems to be content with just about any chunk of meat I offer. Clam, krill, gulf shrimp, it's all the same to him.

This one seems to be borderline blind, though - he doesn't seem to realize the food is there until I touch it to his nose. Regardless, cool fish, and I'm glad I got him!

Reverend Turtle · Nov 11, 2020

HarrisonAquatics said:
Alright, so a couple months later, this guy is awesome. He takes food from tongs, and seems to be content with just about any chunk of meat I offer. Clam, krill, gulf shrimp, it's all the same to him.

This one seems to be borderline blind, though - he doesn't seem to realize the food is there until I touch it to his nose. Regardless, cool fish, and I'm glad I got him!

They're all borderline blind.