Eel Owners, ever heard such a thing as...

[jamesbaur13]

A little background... I recently purchased a Golden Dwarf Moray from a LFS. He's housed in a 120g mixed reef with very porous live rock. I have some tangs, wrasses, anthias... you know the typical reef safe fish.

While researching I can across an interesting statement on a site that made sense to me and I just wanted to bounce it off you to see if this would be a good practice.

Basically, this guy stated that he doesn't feed his eel any fish. Reason being, like myself, he has his eel in a reef tank with a variety of reef safe fish. Because eels have such poor vision and utilize smell as their main way of finding food. He stated that feeding the eel fish would increase the chances of the eel accidentally/intentionally biting something it's not supposed to bite.

Instead of fish he sticks to squid, octopus, clams, and shrimp. He soaks all his food in Selcon.

I was just wondering if you all felt this would be beneficial for the eels co-inhabitants? Also, might the eel have some health implications because of the lack of fish in it's diet?

 

[LukFox]

The golden dwarf was a shy eater in my community tank, always had to be stick fed and never entered the water column during feeding, snapping at tankmates like some other eels do. I think so long as your fish do not fit in its mouth, a dwarf will not bother it. At least mine was not the sort of eel to slash a big fish into bite size bits... Teeth are just too small, not enough power.

So while it makes sense, I'd worry about long term effects of it and I don't really see the eel becoming a problem anyway if tank mates are of appropriate size. If you had some small gobies it might be worthwhile, but so long as your anthias and wrasses are 3"+ it shouldn't be much of a problem.

 

[RDtrack]

I have a mixed reef with some very small fish. I feed my golden silversides that are chopped up. Do I think he would eat live fish? Yes, but he can't fit anything down its throat that isn't the size of a pea. That might be too big to. The other thing I've observed is that the can be picky eaters, only liking one type of food. I would not worry about feeding one fish. On a side note if you are debating about one. Get it, I waited about six months before I found one. I've never regretted it.

 

[jamesbaur13]

if you are debating about one. Get it

I just got mine a week ago. He didn't eat for the first 4 days. I got him to eat octopus and squid legs so far. He'll put his nose right up to it, sometimes taking a small nibble. This is then followed by a strike where he latches on, pulls it away, then consumes.

I soak my food in Selcon and Vitachem... not sure if that helps for presentation.

I'm going to move on to clam and shrimp and see if I can also get a response from those.

I bought some fresh salmon, but I wanted to hold off on that one until I figured out if there was any validity to the guys notion that feeding fish might cause an "accident" with your fish. I've read that salmon is a better choice for eels because it has higher nutritional value than silversides.

I do house one Anthias which might be small enough to become dinner if he got hungry. The rest should be fine in that regard.

I have read that Eels sometimes accidentally strike fish because of their poor vision. Their bites are loaded with bacteria and infection usually follows (at least for humans). I'm assuming that infection is also likely for fish. This is what I would hope to avoid if I was to adopt this idea.

 

[BlueFyre]

Keep him well fed and it should not be an issue. Mine has eaten several small fish(she just loooooovvvees clown gobies) but she has not been an issue otherwise. She bit my purple firefish a while back. It was a nasty looking bite but the firefish healed up perfectly fine without any intervention. I don't think you will have a problem at all with the fish you have, They are very shy feeders.

 

[LukFox]

I've had eels bite fish, and the fish heal up 100% in a week or two even when the bite looked pretty deep (there's a reason I keep most eels solo now). None have gotten infected. Also, none of them were done by the dwarf. Like I said, that was a shy eel and did not bother anyone at all even at feeding time. She was the perfect community eel.

Note that the selcon might actually be confusing your eel right now. They rely heavily on smell, and if the food you are feeding it smells more like selcon than straight meat, that could be why you are having feeding issues. Maybe start soaking in selcon once it is a more consistent eater.

One thing about salmon, it is a fatty fish and should only be used as a treat. Eels don't move a lot and can be prone to obesity, so just don't feed it a whole lot too often. It's best to feed leaner fish, but also be aware not to feed fish with thiamine. Predators are at risk for thiamine deficiency. Wetwebmedia has a good list of safe foods: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/ca/volume_6/volume_6_1/thiaminase.htm

 

[jamesbaur13]

just curious, does anyone have a recommendation for a type of fish to feed to an eel that isn't too fatty, like salmon?

BTW the eel is eating well, it was just the first 4 days that she wasn't eating. I think that's because she was scared and getting accustomed to the new tank.

 

[SDguy]

Thanks for the link, Alexa, very interesting! Now, how does this not apply to other fish, like butterflies, for example, that only eat clam or scallop or mussel in captivity?

 

[LukFox]

Peter, yes I would be careful with those as well. Cockle could be a good replacement for the clam. My local market has them. Also the butterflies may take kindly to bits of fish and whatever else. Whenever I feed my eel I always save some for the butterfly. Absolutely loves it.

James, several of the fish on that list can be purchased at most supermarkets. Print out the list and take it with you to see which ones to get. I'd say the salmon is probably going to be one of the fattest you'll find, so something like the Atlantic cod or Halibut, mixed with squid and prawns. Some thiaminase is okay, just try to balance it out.

Short list of lean fish: http://www.cookuk.co.uk/freezer/fish-oily-lean.htm

 

[RDtrack]

So I got mine on Memorial Day. At the LFS it was eating krill however when I got it home it wouldn't touch krill however silversides chopped was a different story.

A friend of mine has one and all it will eat is salmon.

So I guess I got one of the poor ones, his came from the other side of the rock pile

Mine hides during the day but at night its out and about. My main lights shut off at 9:30 so I'll see the eel anywheres from 8 till then. If I feed the tank it is definitely out and doesn't matter what time of day.

 

[jamesbaur13]

I started combining the 2 lists that Alexa provided.

This is a list of lean fish which are Thiaminase free (according to those links). In case any are curious here's what I got so far...

Cod (Atlantic)
Flounder (Winter, Yellowtail)
Haddock
Hake (Hake, Silver)
Halibut (Atlantic)
Lemon Sole
Plaice (American, European)
Pollock (Saithe)
Mullet
Sea Bass (Black)

Thanks Alexa for those 2 great links. If anyone see's any that need to be added please post and I'll update the list.

 

[SDguy]

Peter, yes I would be careful with those as well. Cockle could be a good replacement for the clam. My local market has them. Also the butterflies may take kindly to bits of fish and whatever else. Whenever I feed my eel I always save some for the butterfly.

Good to know. thanks!