Juvenile electric eel not eating

[Electrofunk]

I received a juvenile electric eel yesterday and I am having trouble getting him to eat when I tried to feed him for the first time today. The fish itself is pretty tiny, maybe 3.5 inches at best. So far I have tried cut up shrimp, and bloodworms. Neither of which it has showed any interest in. My water parameters are pretty spot on, so it's definitely not a water quality issue. What else can I try to get this little dude to eat?

 

[Deadeye]

Welcome to the forum!
Being a new fish, he could still be stressed and may take some time to eat. You can possibly try live ghost shrimp to check its appetite - it may not be willing to eat frozen without training.
jjohnwm has experience with them.

 

[tlindsey]

Welcome aboard

 

[AR1]

I received a juvenile electric eel yesterday and I am having trouble getting him to eat when I tried to feed him for the first time today. The fish itself is pretty tiny, maybe 3.5 inches at best. So far I have tried cut up shrimp, and bloodworms. Neither of which it has showed any interest in. My water parameters are pretty spot on, so it's definitely not a water quality issue. What else can I try to get this little dude to eat?

welcome to MFK

 

[AR1]

Welcome to the forum!
Being a new fish, he could still be stressed and may take some time to eat. You can possibly try live ghost shrimp to check its appetite - it may not be willing to eat frozen without training.
jjohnwm has experience with them.

Deadeye is correct. my 2 foot moray eel refused to eat for 4 days. the water parameters and everything else was fine, it was just getting used to it's new environment and tankmates. make sure it's tankmates are not bothering it. if you have other fish that like to hide and prefer the same hiding spot as your eel does then there might be fighting and also causing the eel not to eat.

 

[jjohnwm]

Dim lighting...hiding places...low traffic, low stress area...maybe some floating plants...minimal current...and most importantly of all...patience! It's been just one day; might take another day or two for the fish (and you!) to relax and settle down enough to eat. But he will; they're not difficult to feed.

Tankmates usually bother an electric eel only once...

 

[Electrofunk]

Welcome to the forum!
Being a new fish, he could still be stressed and may take some time to eat. You can possibly try live ghost shrimp to check its appetite - it may not be willing to eat frozen without training.
jjohnwm has experience with them.

Just got back from my LFS with a few ghost shrimp and threw them in the tank, so far no interest. Although he did also sell me some blackworms and said that he hasn't seen a fish yet that hasn't liked them, so here's hoping if he doesn't like the shrimp these will do the trick.

Dim lighting...hiding places...low traffic, low stress area...maybe some floating plants...minimal current...and most importantly of all...patience! It's been just one day; might take another day or two for the fish (and you!) to relax and settle down enough to eat. But he will; they're not difficult to feed.

Tankmates usually bother an electric eel only once...

That's good to know I already got the ideal setup for it, I got him in a quiet corner of the house, in a dim tank with a rock hide, with just a basic off the tank filter, and plenty of fake (for now) plants to hide in. Gonna upgrade to a planted 75 gallon with a canister filter as soon as I get my floorboards reinforced to put the missus mind at ease about the weight.

 

[Electrofunk]

9PM update, figured I would wait until after dark to try the blackworms, still no luck. I’m gonna leave them in overnight to see if they get eaten by morning.

 

[Electrofunk]

Final update: After waking up this morning to missing blackworms, and not being sure if the eel or the ghost shrimp ate them I just dropped a few more worms in the tank in the eels favorite hiding spot and he ate a couple. Thanks for the info guys, and I’m loving the wealth of information this forum has to offer.