Help!!!

I have a blue ribbon eel, and I don't know what to feed it.. It's not taking either krill, or Ghost shrimp..

Does anyone have any idea as to what I can do to get him to eat??

Paul

If I'm correct and thinking about the right species of eel, you pretty much have to grab the eel, and put the krill half way down there throat, I may be wrong, I would try getting a silver side and shaking it around on a stick he may go after it then...... I hope for yours and his sake


good luck

------------------
Mikeman

"When I was lost as a baby 2 clownfish found me and raised me in an anenome, I still can't keep them"

Paul,
What you could do is try to feed what the LFS fed the day you bought him.
good luck......................

That would be great, if I hadn't bought him wholesale [img]/ubb/smile.gif[/img] I never did see him eat... It's ok if he were to die.. But.. I hate to loose a fish.. Even if it's because of their own unwillingness to eat...

Paul

Paul,
This is what Fenner has to say about them.
"The Ribbon Eel, is among those with a low survival rate. In my estimation, 99% of these dilicate beauties do not live a month in captivity. Most starve, refusing all food."

I have heard a few others have managed to keep them for 8 months last time I heard from them.

I guess give it a couple of days to settle and see what happens. Try different foods.

When did you get it?

I would have to agree with Fenner's statement. I tried to keep one and it died after a week and a half. I tried krill, silversides & squid, but to no positive outcomes. Best of luck to you.

Do research - these eels are almost impossible to keep and best to be left alone in the wild. But here is what you should do.... to help get it to eat, provide adequate hiding places by placing about 8 to 13 cm of live sand and 2.5 cm of coral rubble on the aquarium bottom and a mound of live rock on one side of the tank or against the back glass. Try giving it live feeder fish to entice the ribbon eel to feed. Then introduce a dozen or more mollies or guppies to your tank. You can also try to put small pieces of fish impaled on the sharpened end of a piece of rigid air line tubing, or to take food off the aquarium bottom. When using the feeding stick, it is important to present the food in a nonthreatening manner, Move the food around the tank as if it were natural prey.

Taken from Scott W. Michaels Reef Fish <----- I'd go with what he says



------------------
Short
----------------
Tankyouveymuch

Originally posted by paljets:
SNIP It's ok if he were to die.. SNIP
Paul

Am I the only one who thinks there's something wrong with this statement? Good gracious! Attitudes like these are exactly why our hobby may be heading for some doom and gloom in the very near future.

What exactly is ok about it if he dies? May I also ask why you got it without researching first? A two minute search on any search engine out there would have gotten you any info you needed to make an informed decision.

What a shame.

Also thought the same thing.......

My LFS had a Blue Ribbon eel in their show tank for over a yr till it committed suicide. I was the one who found it barely alive on the side of the tank stand. [img]/ubb/frown.gif[/img] It died an hour after it was found.

Perhaps a f'ed up analogy would help you understand why we are mad about your statement. Consider you were abducted by aliens and they try to feed you wood. You dont eat it, and so they give up and you die. No biggie.

Yes I know that that was extremely wacked up.

From what I've heard of ribbon eels is that they are filter feeders... not so much in the traditional sense but they feed off small invertebrates found in the water column. You would need to have a good working refugium with plenty of "planktonlike" young being produced. The ribbon eel goes about opening his mouth and filtering the prey out through it's gills, I don't think they will take live fish and the such and they are best left in the wild due to their high mortality rate. HTH Good luck with eel.


------------------
Good Luck,
Henry

Ribbon eels are not "filter feeders". Back when ribbon eels first were imported a TFH printed the suggestion they might be filter feeders. Then a few months later they published a couple letters that had cases of ribbon eels not eating for several months. One case I remember the eel was housed with a clownfish of small size. That the eels were fish eaters seemed not likely since the clown was ignored. After a couple months of the eel not eating, a second clown was introduced to the tank and was quickly caught and eaten by the eel. Apparently the new clown's behavior triggered a feeding response. Most of the eels were around six feet long in these examples so they might have had enough fat to fast for a couple months. I think Rodney Jonklaas said that ribbon eels had to be collected with chemicals so there is good possibilty that NaCN was used in collection.

------------------
If you hear about a new lighting system, protein skimmer, medication, or additive. Tell a friend about it. If it works for him use it, if doesn't find a new friend. An Old Kahuna saying

yup they eat live food not filter feeder. i would never buy an animal unless i saw it eat. but thats me.

A smidgen late on this reply but Piege has a serious point. If we aren't careful, we're all going to have pretty tanks full of salt water and no rocks or livestock to put in them. It's bad enough with all the horrible capturing techniques and the die off in shipping and wholesale/retailer's tanks. I kept freshwater tanks for 12 years and did almost a years worth of reading before attempting saltwater. Education is paramount in this hobby. READ READ READ Read everything you can get your hands on. The environmentalists have a valid point. Try not to add fuel to their fire. Improvements must be made in this hobby. Not only with the technical aspects of the industry side but also with the attitudes of retailers and hobbyists alike. There's a good topic for the boards: What can we do as consumers to try and fix these problems?

Yes, I think that I also read that ribbon eels are collected by cyanide and have long term effects from it.

This is somewhat off the subject here but still relates as it shows how prevalent this attitude is in our hobby.

I was talking with someone in a chat room the other day who was asking questions about lighting for a ten gallon reef tank. When asked what he wanted to keep he said he wanted some fish including a mandarin, mantis shrimp, corals, live rock, and anemonies. Then when he was told that he should steer clear from anemonies since most won't survive longer than 12 months in hobbyists tanks he said, "That's ok. 12 months is long enough for me" !!! How do people get in this groove?

Then in the same room someone who claims to be an expert in the field of saltwater says you only need pristine water conditions if you want SPS. Otherwise you don't have to worry about it!! Everything we keep should have pristine water conditions! Just cause it isn't SPS doesn't mean it shouldn;t get the best living conditions possible!!!

*sighs* I wish I felt better.

Sorry to say it but your BRE is doomed. There was a guy at AquaLink a few years ago that had one, He would take it out of the tank and shove food down its throat every few days.....99% of the time the BRE would spit it up....

Here's some info I got awhile back.

This is just some info I was given on how to feed these wonderful animals..by all means please don't go out and buy one unless you are prepared for it to die slowly in your tank.....the person who sent me this info did not say how long he's has kept them and no other info was given.....
-----------------------------------------------------------

"I have gotten ribbon eels to eat several times, and have found it is actually quite easy. They will eat ghost shrimp and goldfish. I would stock the bottom of your tank with enough ghost shrimp that there is a visible population. At the same time feed goldfish smaller than the head of the the eel. To feed the goldfish wait until the eel is out, (try when it is dark if he does not come out with the lights on) then hold the goldfish by the tail and release it close to the head of the eel. Be careful not to frighten the eel. Once the eel sees the fish he should come out and hunt it down, provided that it can find it. You can try with both live and dead goldfish. Some people reccomend some using rigid airline tubing to impale the fish to get it close to the eel. Another option is black mollies that can be acclimated to saltwater. You could also try stocking the tank with those.
---------------------------------------------
Ok, here's some more info
------------------------------------------------------------
Well in my fish only (which was 5-7 years ago) I had one that lived at least 8 months plus. It died when the tank crashed as the result of an unknown contaminant. In my reef tank which is recent I had two that I got to eat, but met their deaths by escaping. One into the sump into a pump, and another to dry land. That reminds me make sure there is no place for them to escape. Keep the top of the tank covered, and all holes in the tank where water flows screened. The last two eels I had before the unfortunate deaths would eat very readily. They would eat at least a fish a day, more if I fed them. I have found what people say about getting ribbon eels to eat a myth. With ample places to hide and no fish that it has to compete with food, I think you should have no problem getting one to eat......



------------------
Tank site is still under constuction.
http://members.aol.com/golfish49/index.html

good god. ok if it were to die, eh? tsk tsk tsk.... that is the most irresponsible thing i have heard on this board.

I'd kinda like to know how the BRE is doing....even tho I have a pretty good idea