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Anonymous

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I had temporarily relocated my 37G FOWLR to my brothers house so that it was out of the way while I moved to my new house. It stayed there for about 5 weeks. Last weekend I moved it back into the new house. I removed the humma humma and the lionfish and took them back to the LFS for credit (off topic, i decided I wanted other types of fishes). The rock was rearranged a little bit during the move. I did a 50% WC during the move. I change the filtration from a sump/skimmer connected to a Lifereef overflow box to a magnum cannister filter. I did this for noise considerations. I know this new set up isn't as good as the old but it'll workfor now ( I already had the canister filter.) I bought an Orchid Dottyback, a Blue Accessor, and a Firefish. The temp in the tanks is about 84. That's a little odd considering I keep the house below 80. I guess the canister filter must me adding heat to the tank.

He seems fine, it is just odd that he hasn't eaten since the move 6 days ago. I dropped in a silverside and left it in overnight figuring that he would find it and eat it overnight. He did not. I removed it the next morning.

Should I be concerned?

Louey
 

eddi

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Louey,

I had a snowflake for almost 2 years and it went through several periods in which it would not eat at all. Six days is quite a bit, but it is not all that uncommon.

Try different foods (krill, squid, clams, ghost shrimp), try feeding it with a stick.


Good luck,

Eddi

PS: This is not a flame, however a 37 gallon tank is not big enough for a snowflake. I don't know how long yours is, but they can exceed 2 feet in length.
 
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Anonymous

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He usaully ate everyday or every other day. Rarely more than two days, but sometime maybe 3 days. I never had to coaks (sp) him into eating. If he was hungary, he would come out and show his interest as soon as I began feeding the other fish. He hasn't shown any interest in being fed.
 
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Anonymous

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I lowered a silverside down on a stip and he still shows no interest.

What's odd is I decided to leave the silverside in the tank so he could find it and eat it latter. The dang thing floated to the surface! I tried a second one and it floated as well. Anyone over seen that before? I fed silversides hundreds of times and they always sink. Wierd!

Randy
 

AgentSPS

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Hmmm 6 days would probably be a concern for me too if it was my fish but then I think about eels in the wild. Eels have a lot working against them :) they are blind as a bat and pretty dumb too (no offense). They probably go fairly long periods between meals in the wild. Personally I think most people overfeed their fish as is. I would just be patient and things should return to normal.
 
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Anonymous

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Your prolly right Reefer Guy. It is just strange because he usaully eats every day or so. Right now he doesn't seem interested in the least. Maybe the dog-days of summer have him feeling lazy!

And I still don't understand why the silversides are floating. Weird!

Louey
 

jmeader

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If the silversides are starting to go bad, they will sometimes float due to decomposition starting and producing gas.
 
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Anonymous

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If the silversides are starting to go bad, they will sometimes float due to decomposition starting and producing gas.

hmm. It is a brand new bag that I just bought. Dang, there went $16.00 down the drain.
 

stevebydac

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Don't sweat it. If he seems healthy, he'll eventually eat. I have had one for seven years and every once in a while he stops eating for several days. At other times he eats an unusually large amount over the course of a week or two. Yours might just be in a little mental funk since his tank got rearranged. He'll be fine.
 
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Anonymous

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stevebydac said:

Yours might just be in a little mental funk since his tank got rearranged. He'll be fine.

I hope your right. He still hasn't eaten a thing. I dropped a silverside and a piece of fresh tigershrimp right in front of him and he showed no interest at all.

We'll see. :(

Louey
 

stevebydac

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As I said, I think he'll eat when he's ready. Are your parameters ok? Ph? Ammonia, etc? Is he breathing normally? Everything else normal? If all is well, then just be patient. Offer him the food, and if he doesn't accept it within a minute or two, remove it. Don't leave it so that it decomposes. Unless he has some internal mystery ailment, he will eventually get hungry and go for the food. They can go for weeks without food...my gut says he'll eat within a week or so. In the meantime make sure his water conditions are excellent. If I were you, and he looks ok, then I really wouldn't worry until another week or so passes.
 
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Anonymous

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Good newss, the eel is eating again and appears to be allright! :D

It is odd that a fish can go 3 1/2 weeks without food! He didn't lose any noticable amount of wait, though I think I lost a few pounds worring about him! :wink:

I remembered that he liked live crawfish. He was fed crawfish almost exclusively when I first got him, before I found out that freshwater crawfish are not good for marine fishes (thanks danmhippo :wink: ). I bought 5 crawfish for $2 at the lfs about a week ago. Tossed one in. Watched it parade around the tank for two days totally unafraid of the eel. That was weird. The crawfish was dead after two days in the saltwater, so I removed his carcas. I waited a couple of more days and tossed in another. Same result. Waited a couple of more days, tossed in another but never found that one's carcas, so I thought that maybe the eel had finally ate. Waited a few more days and tossed in another. The next day I found the crawfishes upper extremities in the tank, so I knew the eel had finally eaten, about 3 -1/2 weeks after this ordeal began.

Today when I fed the fish, the eel acted hungary for the first time in a month. I tossed a crawfish in and he immediately devoured it! :D Yeah!

Amazing creatures we keep. eh? Very resilient.

Hell, I'd perish in a few days without food, for sure! :wink:

Louey
 

King Jason

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I wonder if my LFS sells live crawfish?

I'm setting up a new tank and interested in getting an eel. Do you guys know of any good websites with info on caring for eels? What diet are your eels on? Do they knock over any rocks you may have in your tank while making their burrows?

Kind of off topic, but since I see a lot of experienced eel keepers I wanted to ask you guys.
 
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Anonymous

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As far as eels go, no they usually do not knock over things, they are quite graceful as they move about. That said, we normally recommend to our customers that they stick to Echidna genus eels i.e. Snowflakes, Chainlink and Banded Morays. This genus stays relatively small i.e. max size of about 24" and thus is suitable for most aquariums. The echidna genus are crustacean hunters, they prefer shrimp and small crabs and the like. Might even try fiddlers (I haven't yet, but might be worth it if you wanna feed them live foods). However I've never had any problems getting these eels to eat silversides, and freeze dried krill (Tetra-E).

We had a Snowflake that we sold to a customer when our store first opened, it was a small one i.e. 9" or so. A year or so later he came back to the store when the customer moved and broke down his tank and he was now 18-20" or so. We sold him again and that customer then brought him back when he went off to college. The eel was now a good 3-4 years old and about 26" in length. We put him in one of our display tanks. He lasted about 6 months as a normal eel, but then started to act senescent and eventually stopped eating. He died of old age.
 

King Jason

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What I meant by "knocking over" was basically them digging burrows and the rocks falling into them.

When you feed them Non-Live food, do you just drop it by their burrow or do you need to use a stick or something and kind of coax them out?

MickAv8r, do you have a website I can look at with some pictures of the eels you recommended? I know I could just search the net, but if you have some pictures already that would be easier.
 

danmhippo

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Eels are generally blind as bat (as previously mentioned). They rely on their other senses to detect food.......and sometimes those senses are quite dull.

When the eels are very hungry, they will eat anything hitting their snout. But otherwise, they will sniff it, test bite it, and sometimes food knocks on their head and fell down the abyss and the eels weren't even aware food just pass them by.

If you are keeping eel, I would recommend you feed them varieties. But keep more concentration on food high in calcium such as whole fish (silverside), and oyster.

Eels in my care never "knock" things over. As Tom has mentioned, they are pretty good with slithering in and out of rocks.

I recently got a golden moray. I highly doubt it's the G. Maletremus. About 15" long. It has been in my LFS for the last 12 months. I am keeping my fingers crossed hoping it won't turn out to be a 24" specimen as I really don't know what it is. It's taking in 2 whole silversides a day.
 
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Anonymous

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King Jason":3lyrpske said:
When you feed them Non-Live food, do you just drop it by their burrow or do you need to use a stick or something and kind of coax them out?

I use 12" stainless steel forceps to feed eels and my octos. Other people use salad tongs, or skewers of some sort or another.

MickAv8r, do you have a website I can look at with some pictures of the eels you recommended? I know I could just search the net, but if you have some pictures already that would be easier.

Well our label for the Snowflake is on our website as I have some in stock - http://www.inlandreef.com/f_eel.html I would suggest you purchase Scott Michael's Marine Fish Pocket Guide, and/or Scott's Reef Fishes Vol 1 which has extensive info about eels in general.

Might also try wetwebmedia.com or fishbase.org
 

King Jason

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Funny...I ordered Scott Michael's Marine Fish Pocket Guide about an hour before you posted this...

So you guys would recommend a Snowflake eel?

Just to give you some specs on my tank (when I get it all setup)...It's 150g, and I am going to make it FOWLR. I would like to keep an assortment of fish, puffers, triggers, maybe an angel, etc.
 
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Anonymous

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I hope you put your base rock in before you added the sand. That way the rock is sitting on glass. Eels do burrow, so it is important that your base rock is stable and HEAVY. A good size eel can ealisy topple smaller rocks. When mine get a hold of food that is larger than he prefers, he gets it in a death grip and rolls it into the rock, spinning like a top, trying to break it in two, so that he can eat it. It's cool to watch, but I wouldn't really want that going on in my reef tank.

They are great for FOWLR tanks IMHO.

Louey
 

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