Eel feeding help

Could use some tips on feeding a timid golden moray eel that gets bullied by ghost & fire shrimp.... everytime I dangle a silverside by his rock opening he shows interest but gets scared away by the shrimp (3ghost,2fire) part of me wishes he’d just treat himself to a shrimp cocktail. I’ve tried luring them away with a different silverside but they just circle back and I end up putting more in the tank than I feel comfortable with. He’s a beautiful reefsafe eel but I don’t want him to get so hungry that he gets aggressive with some of my smaller fish (which he has yet to disturb).

Try feeding him something other then silversides. I feed mine krill, clams, and lrs chunky. I have to cut the clams and lrs into strips for him because he is a smaller zebra moray. He will not eat silversides at all.

Yeap I second Jason’s comment, mix it up. Just offer large chunks, my dwarf moray devours things to big for anything else in the tank just dangle it with tongs until he takes and you’re good. These guys are also super reef friendly, since they don’t get too large they leave most things alone, unless you have bottom dwelling gobies your fish should be ok.

Thanks - will try to spice things up for him. I guess it is a good thing he doesn’t have a hankering for fish; I might start off with shrimp just for the irony :) any other care or food tips?

Mine hid for weeks after I got him, he really only comes out when I feed the fish now so dont expect the eel to be out like a snowflake or other type of eel. I feed mine shrimp and clams and krill. If the eel is new I wouldnt worry about it to much. Once he feels comfortable he will come out and eat

Many eels are blind as a bat. Depending on the size of yours, you might want to try feeder goldfish. They were always the preferred treat of my snowflake eel, though he would often just bite the heads off. Cheap entertainment! Always had to dangle it directly it its face, however.

So I’ve tried shrimp, clams, scallops, krill, silversides, lrs (not chunky... what a mess :) ). Every time the tongs hit the water he backs into his home (lg base rock). I’ve started putting the morsels inside front of the cave then keeping others away. I haven’t visually seen him eat but I haven’t seen the food get pushed out or anything. Not sure if that’s a safe assumption that he’s eating.... he doesn’t look sick. I haven’t tried live food yet and am a little leery about getting him used to eating wiggley things as I don’t want him to mistakenly eat a tank mate. At this point I’m thinking that I need to isolate him into a 10g so he can train me. So my questions now are... is the food cave delivery service a safe way to assume he’s eating? Is removing him for training a good idea? Is anyone willing to help? (I need to coerce him out and have someone ready to net) I got corals and or beer for your time.

Try one of these
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...28336c6703.jpg
https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/201...01df2aea43.jpg

It’s a verticals blind closer from a big box hardware store.
Has a handy hook at the end, it’s clear and you can use it to fend off scavengers. It’s about $4.00 and has worked great for me the last few years. Definitely STAY AWAY from silversides!!!


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ha! clever- will try... I do have a 3/16 clear rigid tube that hasn’t worked well but the hook could be a game changer.

I used an eyed fishing weight with a loop of some monofilament and a needle. I threaded right through the side of a goldfish and tied a single hitch to hold the wiggling feeder. I placed the weighted fish in front of a ribbon eel and after a couple of times feeding this way the ribbon eel got the hang of tank feeding and would eventually come out and hunt went he smelled a feeder in the water.

It wasn't pretty for the goldfish, but the eel figured out it was safe to come out and feed in the tank. This should also work with chunks of shrimp, clams, etc. Maybe feed the shrimp on the other side of the tank before you drop the eels food into the entrance to his lair.

It turns out that freshwater feeder goldfish are not the best nutrition for a marine preditor, so try to get him eatting the other marine items previously mentioned. Gl

Get a small square sheet of 1/8” acrylic and “wall” that portion of the tank off from the shrimp before feeding. This will allow the moray to have a chance to eat in peace while making everything else wonder how the tank wall suddenly got so much closer. I used to do this when training mandarins to take mysis using a pipet.