Fire eel Refusing to eat after A motnh

About a month ago I bought a 15-16” fire eel that was nice and chunky from my LFS.

I intend for him to go in a 300 gallon I have, but for the time being I quarantined him in a 40 gallon breeder.

I made sure to put sand and a pvc hide in there that he often uses. I’m also sure to stay on top of water parameters, with the tank at 79 degrees.

Since I’ve gotten him, he hasn’t eaten a single thing. He always seems to inspect the food and my tongs, but ultimately never eats. The closest I’ve gotten to him eating is doing a “sneezing” motion towards some frozen shrimp and scallops I gave him.

Up till now, I’ve tried:

- Frozen shrimp
- Frozen Scallops
- Frozen tilapia
- Frozen bloodworms
- Frozen whole krill
- freeze dried blackworms
- Live red witgglers
- Live Canadian nightcrawlers
- Ghost shrimp

I also try all the recommended feeding methods, with the lights fully off at night time, sometimes even leaving food overnight to see if he’s eaten.

At this point I’m running out of options, and while I know eels can often go on a hunger strike, I’m nearing the point where I’m getting concerned.

Would appreciate any help from the pros on here. He doesn’t seem sick in any way.

A friend of mine had a 24"+ Fire Eel back in the day, fed it almost exclusively on Tubifex worms for years. When the Tubifex had a period of unavailability, he tried Red Worms, but the eel wouldn't touch them, or anything else. He eventually got it to take nightcrawlers, but it had to get really hungry first. There are certain elements to Tubifex and Blackworms that I've seen stimulate the appetites of other picky species. Freeze dried is not the same as live, things are lost in the drying process.

Find out what it was eating at the store. If it was s trade-in, see if they will contact the person who raised it and find out what they were feeding it.

A friend of mine had a 24"+ Fire Eel back in the day, fed it almost exclusively on Tubifex worms for years. When the Tubifex had a period of unavailability, he tried Red Worms, but the eel wouldn't touch them, or anything else. He eventually got it to take nightcrawlers, but it had to get really hungry first. There are certain elements to Tubifex and Blackworms that I've seen stimulate the appetites of other picky species. Freeze dried is not the same as live, things are lost in the drying process.

Find out what it was eating at the store. If it was s trade-in, see if they will contact the person who raised it and find out what they were feeding it.

Click to expand...

I feel like those are the only two foods I haven’t tried lol. I’ll try those, struggling to find them in my area.

I tried to find a chain of custody but sadly they didn’t have much info for me.