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I have had my new spiny eel for about one week now. He is fairly active swimming around in theday and at night. I have been feeding him/her very smallsinking pellets but have not noticed him actually go and eat food. He dissappears when at feeding time because I presume the other fish are too active for his comfort. So yesterday I held a clump of bloodworms (not live) in front of where he had his head sticking out of the sand and he seemed to eat maybe three or four bloodworms. He is only small say 10cm. The question I have is how much and how often should I feed him and is bloodworms alone ok or should I get something else. I have asked around and no one can give me a culture of whiteworms or any other live food so that I can start breeding live foods for him so I have to stick to frozen food unti I find something. I have however collected mosquito eggs which have hatched and I'm just waiting for the little suckers to get big enough to be fed to the fish.

Wow, that's a small eel. If you aren't already, perhaps you should try feeding this fish at night, when it is active and looking for food. I would try to get it on something like shrimp pellets; it's a lot easier and will provide more nutrients. It seems that your fish may not be responding to it; perhaps even, you can try soaking shrimp pellets with bloodworms, so that the pellets get that bloodworm smell all over them.

I feed my Black Lancer catfish primarily bloodworms; it wouldn't eat anything else for quite a while, but I believe it also eats shrimp pellets ("believe" since it's kind of hard to tell at night...). I target feed this fish by using a tube; I put the food in the tube at the top, and then pour water down the tube to allow it to sink faster. Otherwise the food gets stuck to the side of the tube and never gets down!

I like to quarantine the tougher fish to feed to make sure they get used to how feeding works and don't have the other fish to compete with.

I've also heard that feeding just bloodworms may be bad as it can cause an allergy to develop.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Hi,
Does your spiny eel have lots of sand to burrow in? these eels will not naturally scavenge like morays, but will sit with their head poking out of the sand waiting for foods such as bloodworm and brineshrimp, live bloodworm will never be turned down from a healthy specimen.
What other fish are in the tank(size?) with it? they are very shy animals as you have probably found and are best with slow, peaceful fish...anything too boisterous will not target the fish but will simply put the fish off eating.
Plant cover should be provided - if you have any small filter intakes, if it gets too scared it will end up in there - powerhead or not.
Hope this helps.
At least you made an effort, Milton

Hey, I try. Feeding tube might still work though, no? (That's me trying to salvage my effort).

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

Haha, with the ones i kept (a fair few..) if i put anything into the tank, infact, if i opened the hood they all "went in" or swam around stupidly.
If the eel is calm enough to stay where it is whilst a pippete/feeding tube is placed into their water, then sure, i dont see why not

your LFS should carry live foods like brine shrimp, blood worms, glass or black worms, and etc... if you need cultures look on aquabid. i have seen many live cultures being sold on there...

www.aquabid.com

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

He seems ok with the other fish in the tank (maily rasboras and blind cave fish). The tank is planted and he has a tube to hide in although he doesn't use it. I was able to find him in the dark and fed him once again on bloodworms and like shinigami said its a bit hard to tell at night if they eat. Will he get used to hand feeding and become less shy? He doesn't seem to mind the light too much though as he actively swims around the tank from time to time in the day and he doesn't swim away from my hand either which makes feeding a little easier. I only have one in the 4 foot tank. Is it best to keep them in pairs or more or is just one fine?
Thanks for all the help

one should be fine, but i am no expert. hand feeding would be fine, but it might become a problem if you ever go on vacation and ask a friend or neighbor to feed the fish... they might not be all that into putting theur hands into the tank and might fear an animal like an eel. i would try top ween them off the hand feeding. and you could get some submersible moonlight led lights if you want to watch the eel feed or to make sure it does feed.

hopefully all is going well...
brandon

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Breakthrough!!
Yesterday I was able to get old of some blackworms (which I am now trying to culture). I fed the tank inhabitants with some of these bloodworms and they went nuts over them. More importantly my spiney eel actually joined the frenzy. I saw one worm escape into the sand(and thought oops, this is how a breakout will happen) but when I switched off the light I noticed that the spiney eel was spending a lot of time where the worms were and he was sniffing around (almost scavenging) and every now and then he would dig his head deep into the sand and come out looking like he was eating something. I will stil hand feed though because I like the idea of the fish being so comfortable with me and its one way I'll get him to come out and know he's eating.

I noticed that the spiney eel was spending a lot of time where the worms were and he was sniffing around (almost scavenging) and every now and then he would dig his head deep into the sand and come out looking like he was eating something. I will stil hand feed though because I like the idea of the fish being so comfortable with me and its one way I'll get him to come out and know he's eating.

Thats a great sign...they will naturally "fish" for food in the wild with their heads poking out, lovely fish.
Look at the Fire Eels, seen some of those recently..wow...like 4ft wow though