Fire Eel Not Eating

[jeff_dwork]

My fire eel (Mastacembelus erythrotaenia) has suddenly stopped eating. She (he?) is about 30" long, 6 years old, in a 210 gal tank [ammonia=0, nitrite=0, nitrate high, but it's always been high, 77F, pH about 7.8]. No visible lesions. Normal activity - not much - hangs out in one of her tubes, sometimes swims once around the tank. Other fish in the tank are fine.

We were feeding 5 or 6 large night crawlers every other day, increased to every day about 3 weeks ago. She's always really eager to eat - up to the surface as soon as she sees me coming with the bowl, gobbles the worms down as fast as I offer them. Two days ago she refused totally. Yesterday she tried to eat one worm, got it almost down, then spat it up.

My big questions: Am I feeding too much? Anyone else seen this behavior?

Thanks,
Jeff

 

[simonas]

I haven;t seen a full change from a fire eel that to one that didn;t its usually the getting them to eat that is the hard part

Saying that my 20 odd inch one I had last year stopped suddenly and he hada tumpour on hishead that got bigger and bigger and he stopped eating as a result

I was going to suggest trying him on earth worms to get him back into eating as they never refuse them

good luck and welcome to the forum

 

[jeff_dwork]

Thanks for the quick response.

How much and how often did you feed your eel?

Jeff

I haven;t seen a full change from a fire eel that to one that didn;t its usually the getting them to eat that is the hard part

Saying that my 20 odd inch one I had last year stopped suddenly and he hada tumpour on hishead that got bigger and bigger and he stopped eating as a result

I was going to suggest trying him on earth worms to get him back into eating as they never refuse them

good luck and welcome to the forum

 

[the biffster]

Fire eels are relatively hardy fish, and are easy to take care of. They are mostly nocturnal, so all feedings are primarily at night [unquote]

 

[simonas]

To be fair the ones I have hae once settled are constantly out and beg at the top like a dog for food when you walk in the room

The last one I had eat prawns lancefish frozen mysis, bloodworm and brineshrimp and earthworms they absolutely love earth worms. I used to feed it pretty much every night but he was a decent sized fish. When he became ill I was devestated as he was my favourite fish

 

[jeff_dwork]

Good news. We were overfeeding her. We waited a few days, then offered a worm. She ate two the first day and worked up from there. We're back to 5 worms every two days. I'm thinking that the lower water temp slowed her down. It stays at 77 in the winter, but in summer it's closer to 81.

Jeff

 

[simonas]

brilliant news as theres nothing worse than watching one of these things fade through not eating