Snowflake not eating... anyone know of any possible reasons?

Jayded · #1 09/14/2006, 04:50 AM

I have had my snowflake for a week. I read and was told by the LFS to feed it twice a week. He was fed the day I bought him (just half hour before I got him) and then fed again on Saturday night. He went nuts at the food and ate well.
On Monday night I had a bit of a crash and the ammonia and nitrite spiked. Im not sure of the cause but I lost my lionfish and a snail in it. The Snowflake and the hermit lived. I fixed the water up with about a 40% water change and a little prime.
(The Lionfish and snail were lost the next morning after I fixed up the water so Im not entirely sure why esp the snail... Ive never lost one of those before except one eaten by a crab) Another weird thing was that just today there were weird worms hanging out of the rock which looked dead. Some had some parts of feather duster tops on them so I am assuming they all died too but the spike was quite a few days ago now and was fixed the same day. I dont really know whats happening and now that the levels have been ok for the past 2 days at least I cant understand the problem.
Anyways. It is now 2 days sincs I have been trying to feed the eel and he is not eating. He just looks at the food. I try morning and night and he just wont eat.
I tested the water twice today, morning and night. Nitrite is 0 and ammonia is 0.. what else could be the cause for him to refuse food?
I dont want to loose him too

dhoch · #2 09/14/2006, 07:42 AM

Eels will often go on hunger strikes for up to 2 weeks when they have been through a stressful situation.

The best thing to do is not stress out about it, and keep trying to feed him.

Dave

alancolinet · #3 09/14/2006, 11:18 AM

Eels do have a tendency to not eat after such an ordeal... if after a couple of weeks he still isn't eating then try changing the food up a bit. I feed mine krill and squid. Depending on the size of the eel he may not really need to eat but once a week.

When mine was smaller he would want to eat every day if I let him. As he got older his appetite slowed down.

Jayded · #4 09/14/2006, 04:34 PM

Mine is very small, hes only about 8-10 inches.
How sensitive are they? Am I still likely to loose him because of this?
I will keep offering him food in the hopes that he will take it.

alancolinet · #5 09/15/2006, 12:45 PM

He should start eating soon I would imagine, eels are VERY hardy and notoriously difficult to kill ( you have to practically step on him to kill him ). I would keep offering him food daily and check your water parameters... what kind of prime did you use? If you add to much to the tank you could strip most of the oxygen from the tank... this would be noticeable when you look at the eels gills and they appear to be a little red and inflamed.

LionfishFinatic · #6 09/15/2006, 04:01 PM

if he doesn't start eating, you should try live feeders. i do not recommend doing this but if it comes down to it you might have to. once you get him eating try and ween him off it and feed him stuff such as krill, marine fish, squid stuff like that. some live foods i would recommend is ghost shrimp( yes they are freshwater) and very small guppies. but DO NOT, i repeat DO NOT feed him this stuff a lot. you can use for treats once in a while. all freshwater live fish and shrimp are high in fatty acids that are bad for eels and eill result in premature death. i really hope you get him eating again.
Cheers,
LionfishFinatic

Jayded · #7 09/15/2006, 04:20 PM

I used Seachem Prime. Only what the bottle said (it says you can use up to 5 times the dose for emergencies) so I did the right amount a few times until the ammonia was 0. The filter provides air bubbles and agitation so hopefully the oxygen has been replaced by now. Tests have been ok since I removed the fish which died and added a little more (3 days ago now)
Good news is he took some food from me - roughly as usual. And took it into his cave. But later I noticed it float out so he hadnt eaten it.
Im hoping the next time I offer and he takes it he will eat it.