Fresh water moray

Hi all

I bought a fresh water moray eel, beautiful fish but just doesn't want to eat. Water is fine, no nitrates, no amonia, water is fine. Tried giving it choka, feeder fish, chopped up fish, shrimp, etc.

Now I've read that some take time to settle in and it can take a bit of time for them to settle in.

So what I want to know is should I be concerned or just be patient or is their anything else I can try?

The tank is set up according to all the articles I've read.

SalmonAfrica how long did it take before your eels starting eating?

 

where abouts are u shakes

 

Hey Shakes, I just want to confirm... is it a brackish setup or a freshwater setup? I ask because according to this article: http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/predatory/freshwatermoray.php the freshwater moray eel is not a true fresh water eel but a brackish water eel.

 

Yip Linxie, its a brackish water setup, well not totally yet because they had it in a fresh water aquarium so i'm adding marine salt slowly to his tank. Didnt want to stress hi out by just popping him straight into a brack tank.

Oscar freak I'm in Wilderness, southern cape.

 

Awesome, thought the freshwater might be the reason he wasn't eating. Glad to hear you're adding salts ^^, (Ps.. pics when you can )

Have you tried feeding him earthworms? Just a thought... dunno if the moray would like em or not... most other eels do though

 

Hey Shakes

Really, you should have done plenty of reading up on this animal BEFORE you took it home, as you should do with any pet. Freshwater morays aren't truely freshwater at all - the majority of the time this species is found in brackish or marine water; that is, with some degree of salt content in the water.

You say the water is fine, but in reality it'll need some salt to do well in captivity. Some morays will refuse to eat in captivity simply because there isn't enough salt in the water. These morays, when kept in freshwater, may refuse to eat at all. Sometimes they're being kept in brackish water, and then they go on a hunger strike, only willing to eat again once the salinity goes up.

What I recommend you do is get yourself some quality marine salt (Red Sea, Tetra, whatever etc.) and a hydrometer (this is a tool which measures the specific gravity of the water - in a sense, the salinity).
Over the period of the next few weeks (3-5 weeks), use your water changes to bring up the salinity of the tank by no more than 0.002 per week. With this, on your third week your tank should have an SG reading of 1.006. In such conditions, the moray will be much happier.

My only concern here is that once you start pushing up the salinity, they beneficial bacteria in your system will start dying off. In ideal circumstances, you would have had a brackish tank running for at least 3 weeks prior to buying the eel, such that the tank can adjust to having salt in it and the filters can handle having some form of bioload in the brackish system.

All I can say is: whatever you do, do it slowly. If you rush things, it's likely that things can go wrong just as fast, and your eel can go into shock if you rush anything.

It's true, some are very nervous after being transported around, netted and then thrown into an unfamiliar environment... however, such nervousness shouldn't last long, and their instinct to take food normally kicks in within the first week. Mine ate the second day I had it.

I'm doubtful that it'll eat until you've got some salt in your tank; it's a problem many freshwater eel keepers have had. Don't worry though - morays can go for long periods of time without food, sometimes weeks at a time.

All the best
Tim

 

Thanx Linxie for the link but thats one of the articles I read before I bought it.

 

Thanx SalmonAfrica. Let me re-quote. I read alot of info off the net before I purchased it. The same time I bought the eel my wife purchased a complete marine aquarium. She got a bucket of red sea salt and I added a cup of that to the tank immeadiatly and have been adding a little more every 3 days. I've been checking with the hydrometer and my needle on the guage has'nt start to move yet. But like you say give it time.

I also wonder though,being a wild caught eel as none have been bred in captivity yet(according to articles I've read), what about internal parasites, could this also be a problem. Sorry to bring reptiles into it but this is a problem which snake keepers have when buying wild caught snakes from importers?

 

There are normally other signs when the fish is affected by internal parasites - weight loss, heavy breathing, colour loss and sometimes cloudy eyes. Another sign of internal parasites is a loss of appetite, but morays in captivity are so well known for their hunger strikes that such behaviour is hardly ever attributed to parasites.

 

Just wanted to let you know that when I got home on friday one of the feeder fish in the tank had been eaten, His also alot more active and saw it chasing the other feeder fish last night. Thanks for all the advice guys.

 

also alot of what we read about fish is very subjective,because it didnt work for whoever is writing the article then it does'nt work.iv always been fascinated by the brackish water fish namely mono angels but always shied away from them cause people say oh no they must be kept seperately in salt water yada yada,i just saw them happy as pigs in palestine in freshwater,lizid done open my eyes

 

Lots and lots of people keep brackish fish in freshwater. I'm telling you right now though - none of those fish live to their full life potential. Sure, they might just reach adult size, but they'll kive for a maximum of 3-5 years as opposed to a good 10 years.

Also remember that some brackish species are more tolerant of freshwater than others; Monodactylus sebae is known to tolerate lower end brackish/freshwater more than it's counterpart, Monodactylus argenteus. I've found that Monodactylus falciformis, once an adult, will not tolerate freshwater at all.