The Official Asylum Reef Tank Thread

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by sergeant smoky

P.S. I got a better water tester kit and found my ammonia and nitrates / nitrites were high. I did a 1/3 water change and added stress enzyme. Fred looks better and is more active now, and is eating better. I also got the salinity to 1.018, as per recomendations. I think that is better so that I can place feeder fish in the tank and they will live until he gets hungry.

Great, glad to hear he is better.

Don't feed him feeder fish, specially if fresh water as some folks do.
That is not part of their diet.
Eels by large part eat shrimp, clams, etc in that family.
While he may be eating other stuff (heck, mine eats the regular food I feed the fish - granules that you see in the photo I just posted of my tank), it is not necessarily good for them or the tank.
Feeder fish and things like silver fish are bad for the water chemistry, specially in a 75 gallon system or smaller that has less tolerance for variance.
Some eels like a zebra moray will starve before they even dare try to eat a live fish.
They are not designed for that.
Get in the habit of feeding him once to three times a week, depending on how he looks as far as seeking out food.
The more you feed an eel, the more he will grow. The less you feed, the longer he takes to grow.
Place a shrimp piece on a feeding stick for eels and control what goes in the tank so to limit waste.

[Smoking Dragon]

Yeah I'm gonna stop by the asian store on the way home and pick up a few fresh, live clams for him to try.

[Blueface]

Originally Posted by sergeant smoky

Yeah I'm gonna stop by the asian store on the way home and pick up a few fresh, live clams for him to try.

Freeze them when you get home.
It kills any parasites they may bring that may affect the tank.
I then thaw them in a cup with water, split it and drop the half shell with the claim in the tank.
Once he is done, scoop out the shell.
If he doesn't like it, get it out of there.

He will go nuts for it as he also will for shrimp.
I take a medium to large shrimp and cut it into about three pieces (for the size of my eel).
I then feed him the pieces on a feeding stick.
Mine goes through about 5 shrimp on average, about two times a week.