Hi all,
My first post here and for a change rather than asking stuff (lol), I'd like to give a contribution if i can.
I have a 10 feet 1400 liter aquarium and have bichir, oscars and one fire eel and one tiretrack eel.
The tiretrack eel has always eaten frozen food of all type, live ghost shrimps, live earthworms etc. The fire eel had always eaten live food only, refusing anything else. Got them both that they were around 20 cm each and no thicker than a finger.
No matter how long i would starve the fire eel (never gone beyond a week as i was sure the result would be the same), there was no avail. I must have tried dozen of times and there was zero sign this practice would ever have any other outcome than the eel starving itself.
Forget about those saying "hang a piece of food in front the of the eel and shake it like a worm etc". Who has the time and also impractical as the fire eels typically get in to holes and are not really that happy to be disturbed.
Eventually i began to chop the frozen food (shrimp, mussels, scallop) in a jar and add a couple of chopped eartworms as well as the worm juice that collects at the bottom of my compost box. This is a liquid natural fertiliser which i guess has the same taste as the worms, produced by the worms and rotten veg. It contains all natural stuff (mainy veg juices) so it is quite harmless.
This broth would thaw the frozen food and soak it. I made sure to chop all very thinly as one of the issue behind fire eels being fussy is because they cannot swallow large pieces if they are alway used to eat thin worms (aside of their taste obviously).
Their throat is not used to the large size and they simply choke (they make quite a spectacle and look like they want to throw up).
The first time she swallowed a piece of scallop, then realised it wasn't a worm and spat it. Next time she reluctantly swallowed a piece (was hungry and i guess she thought, well it is not a worm but tastes like it so whatever) Third time 2-3 pieces went down great.
well, im now 2 weeks in to the practice, she devours pretty much any marinated chunk and she is no longer that fussed on what she swallows, nor seem to "smell" things obsessively before eating them as before. I have tried throwing food not marinated first and i think it is too soon for her to be tempted by that but i think it is just a matter of time until she forgets about the worms altogether or gets used to the frozen food smell and associates it with food too.
These days i marinate for barely 5min, so a lick of worm broth is enough to satisfy her.
So, don't despair, just marinate whatever food with the worm broth and chopped worms and don't feed anything else.
Worm compost boxes are very cheap, and you can buy 250gr of earthworms for like 15£. Shame as i have at least 2kg of worms now, and I don't think i will feed them to the eel any more, aside for occasional treats (i don't want her to go back to bad habits)
Well i guess im assorted with compost for good.
Cheers all
(Few pics of my setup)
My first post here and for a change rather than asking stuff (lol), I'd like to give a contribution if i can.
I have a 10 feet 1400 liter aquarium and have bichir, oscars and one fire eel and one tiretrack eel.
The tiretrack eel has always eaten frozen food of all type, live ghost shrimps, live earthworms etc. The fire eel had always eaten live food only, refusing anything else. Got them both that they were around 20 cm each and no thicker than a finger.
No matter how long i would starve the fire eel (never gone beyond a week as i was sure the result would be the same), there was no avail. I must have tried dozen of times and there was zero sign this practice would ever have any other outcome than the eel starving itself.
Forget about those saying "hang a piece of food in front the of the eel and shake it like a worm etc". Who has the time and also impractical as the fire eels typically get in to holes and are not really that happy to be disturbed.
Eventually i began to chop the frozen food (shrimp, mussels, scallop) in a jar and add a couple of chopped eartworms as well as the worm juice that collects at the bottom of my compost box. This is a liquid natural fertiliser which i guess has the same taste as the worms, produced by the worms and rotten veg. It contains all natural stuff (mainy veg juices) so it is quite harmless.
This broth would thaw the frozen food and soak it. I made sure to chop all very thinly as one of the issue behind fire eels being fussy is because they cannot swallow large pieces if they are alway used to eat thin worms (aside of their taste obviously).
Their throat is not used to the large size and they simply choke (they make quite a spectacle and look like they want to throw up).
The first time she swallowed a piece of scallop, then realised it wasn't a worm and spat it. Next time she reluctantly swallowed a piece (was hungry and i guess she thought, well it is not a worm but tastes like it so whatever) Third time 2-3 pieces went down great.
well, im now 2 weeks in to the practice, she devours pretty much any marinated chunk and she is no longer that fussed on what she swallows, nor seem to "smell" things obsessively before eating them as before. I have tried throwing food not marinated first and i think it is too soon for her to be tempted by that but i think it is just a matter of time until she forgets about the worms altogether or gets used to the frozen food smell and associates it with food too.
These days i marinate for barely 5min, so a lick of worm broth is enough to satisfy her.
So, don't despair, just marinate whatever food with the worm broth and chopped worms and don't feed anything else.
Worm compost boxes are very cheap, and you can buy 250gr of earthworms for like 15£. Shame as i have at least 2kg of worms now, and I don't think i will feed them to the eel any more, aside for occasional treats (i don't want her to go back to bad habits)
Well i guess im assorted with compost for good.
Cheers all
(Few pics of my setup)
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