New zebra moray

jax904 · Nov 27, 2022

Hello all this is my first post,

I bought the eel from a local fish store. Normally I would ask them to feed the fish before I purchased, but last time I did that with a moray it threw up by the time I got it home.

Once I got him home and in quarantine, I gave a more thorough look at him and he's pretty thin so I gave him a day to adjust and tried feeding him last night to see if he would eat. I just poured some of the water that the food was sitting in into the tank and he showed an appetite. I had a little neck clam and a small head on shrimp and he just tears everything up, not swallowing anything. He will just chew and shake everything around. I have never experienced this and I have had 4 other species of morays. I've had hunger strikes that lasted 6 months, but I'm pretty worried about this any idea what it could be?

vetteguy53081 · Nov 27, 2022

jax904 said:
Hello all this is my first post,

I bought the eel from a local fish store. Normally I would ask them to feed the fish before I purchased, but last time I did that with a moray it threw up by the time I got it home.

Once I got him home and in quarantine, I gave a more thorough look at him and he's pretty thin so I gave him a day to adjust and tried feeding him last night to see if he would eat. I just poured some of the water that the food was sitting in into the tank and he showed an appetite. I had a little neck clam and a small head on shrimp and he just tears everything up, not swallowing anything. He will just chew and shake everything around. I have never experienced this and I have had 4 other species of morays. I've had hunger strikes that lasted 6 months, but I'm pretty worried about this any idea what it could be?

they need to eat every 2-3 days and he may have eaten already. Be careful pouring food juices in the tank as their water quality is important and they are intolerant of high nitrate will rise quickly with juices of food.
Hopefully it was well acclimated and water quality meets its needs. If youre monitoring with an API kit or ammonia Badge- DO consider quickly switching to more accurate Salifert or Hanna Kits. You dont want to risks its health with a $7 badge or $25 master kit to find your water is way off to sustain any marine specimens' health

Jay Hemdal · Nov 27, 2022

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

Zebra morays are well know of going on hunger strikes. Usually though, they just ignore food. Yours is biting food but not swallowing it, so that is unusual. Can you post a picture, that might give me some idea as to how thin it is. Fish will reach a point where if they have gone without food long enough, that they use up their livers for energy. Once that point is reached, they cannot recover from the liver damage.

Can you try stick feeding it smaller pieces of food?

Here is an article I wrote on fish anorexia:

Chronic Anorexia in Aquarium Fishes

Don't fall into the trap of assuming the fish will begin feeding when it gets hungry enough, or conclude it must be eating something, just not when you are watching.

reefs.com

Here is one that I wrote on force-feeding fish:

Tube / Force Feeding Fish

This article describes methods of tube-feeding and force-feeding fish

www.reef2reef.com

Jay

YOYOYOReefer · Nov 27, 2022

i would give it a few days to adjust to the tank.
i have 2 large zebras in my predator reef and they dont come out to eat all that often maybe once or twice a week. Both of them will somethimes go several weeks without eating. Very different from most eel species i have kept. they are very low energy eels.

jax904 · Nov 27, 2022

The quaritine tank is a 2 year old, 75 gallon with no livestock except soft coral, clean up crew (snails), and live rock. Water quality shouldn't be an issue,I didn't add a whole cup of liquid in, just a squirt to see if it got his attention before draining the food and entering it into the tank. I have other morays that I've had for years and they are doing fine. None of them ever just ripped food apart while not ingesting any of it. I know nudging and refusing to eat is normal with new eels, my snowflake eel went on a hunger strike for 5 months one time before eating again. I'm going to contact the store owner and see what he wants to do. here are some pics my phone sucks with pictures and I can barely get a pic of him entirely..he is clearly lacking healthy mass...

Jay Hemdal · Nov 27, 2022

jax904 said:
The quaritine tank is a 2 year old, 75 gallon with no livestock except soft coral, clean up crew (snails), and live rock. Water quality shouldn't be an issue,I didn't add a whole cup of liquid in, just a squirt to see if it got his attention before draining the food and entering it into the tank. I have other morays that I've had for years and they are doing fine. None of them ever just ripped food apart while not ingesting any of it. I know nudging and refusing to eat is normal with new eels, my snowflake eel went on a hunger strike for 5 months one time before eating again. I'm going to contact the store owner and see what he wants to do. here are some pics my phone sucks with pictures and I can barely get a pic of him entirely..he is clearly lacking healthy mass...

The best picture would be the head, where it tapers to the body, that’s how I judge body mass on this species. If the head is off to the left in the second picture, then yes, this eel is very thin.
Jay