eel behavior

[joedelt]

for those of you with eels
is it common for them to go a couple of days w/out taking food?

ive been consistantly giving my eel food and earlier this week he stopped taking it. all my fish are still alive as well as my cleaner shrimp, and i still have all 4 of my snails.

thanks for the thoughts.
/john

[hcs3]

eels are like snakes, in the sense that they eat a large meal, then digest it over several days.

feeding one large meal per week should be sufficient.

when i kept an eel (long, long ago) i wouldn't feed it until it came out of it's cave during a regular tank feeding. i knew when he looked out that he was hungry, so i'd feed it then.

HTH

henry

[FMarini]

Hi:
if I may.....
Not sure which eel your talking about, but I can relate my personal experiences w/ zebra moreys. My zebra went for 12 full weeks w/out eating, and then. Bamm just like a light switch went on, hes a eating machine. I suspect its like Henry said, their like snakes, they gorge then they digest, fast and repeat again. a few days shouldnot be worisome. Now if you notice behavior changes as well, lots of activity, weird movements, discoloration, etc...then it might be time to think about something else
frank

[joedelt]

thanks for the feed back

thats kind of what i was thinking and just wanted to confirm my asumption.
he ate like a pig, and has now stopped and not acting hungry at all.
im thinking he took food so regularly more because he was underfed at the LFS who kept him in a 10x8 kritter cage inside a 50 gallon tank and only got a shrimp added to his enclusure each day.

now he has swiming room and he regularly comes out and swims through the live rock. really a wonderful addition to my tank.

/john