OK, first thing to do is get the feeder fish out. Unless you bred the feeder fish yourself and it's a livebearer that's been gut-loaded. Otherwise, remove at once. It's bad enough that doing this will eventually bring in parasites, but many feeder species, especially goldfish and minnows, are actually bad for marine fish (which is essentially what a moray eel is). They damage the internal organs. Have a read of Bob Fenner's "Conscientious Aquarist" book to learn why in more detail.
Now, morays are nocturnal fish that hunt by smell. If you put too much food in, they have problem localising the prey and finding it. So small amounts of food more often are better than just dumping a load of food in and hoping for the best.
What, specifically, are the water conditions? Morays are notorious for going on hunger strikes when the salinity is too low. At a minimum it should be SG 1.005, and I'd heartily recommend SG 1.010. Your pH sounds fine, but what about the hardness? In particular, brackish water fish want a nice high carbonate hardness (KH). Undergravel filtration through coral sand is the quick 'n' easy way to get this, but there are lots of other options. Any marine aquarium or Rift Valley cichlid book will give you tips on this.
Morays are easily stressed, especially in new surroundings. There's a lot to be said for removing the food from the tank (if it dies or decays it will pollute the aquarium) and just letting the moray chill out for a few days. It won't starve. After 3-4 days, then worry about food. One or two river shrimp are ideal for the invertebrate-eating morays (Echidna spp.) whereas Gymnothorax may want something a little more meaty, either home-bred livebearers or small pieces of whitebait and lancefish. Getting the fish trained onto dead foods takes time but is essential in the long term. The ideal for morays is a varied diet including mussels, prawns, whitebait, cockles, etc. The more variation, the better. Getting them hooked onto just feeder fish does no-one any good, not the eel and not the aquarist.
Even under the best of circumstances, don't expect this fish to swim about in the open. They don't do this. They hide. A lot. And then come out at night. There's some reports that they do best when kept in groups as juveniles, but adults are pretty territorial and sometimes rather nasty, so unless you have a giant tank, stick to just the one moray.
Cheers, Neale
hey i got a moray a couple days ago and he was cought in this hiding place in a coral, i had got him out but hes not coming out of his little ornament thing, i buy him feeder fish and ghost shrimp but there not being eaten, i dunno if im just putting to much stress on this guy or what, should i just let him do his thing and wander out when he wants or what, plz somone help
37 gallon tank
8.2 pH
plenty of hiding places
good filtration
