Proper diet for a gymnothorax favagineus (tessalata eel) and a gymnothorax dovii (fine spotted moray eel)

[HAAAAAAAA]

I have a tessalata moray eel and another eel on what I believe to be a gymnothorax dovii (fine spotted moray eel) my current diet is gonna be small mackerel infused with pellets soaked in multivitamins, squid, tilapia, whole shrimp with head and shell

So if there's anything else I should add, please mention

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I'd definitely add a bivalve like mussels or clams, they're not only healthy, but they contain a good amount of Vitamin B1 (thiamin), which helps keep predators healthy despite their ingestion of thiaminase.

That said, how long have you had the eels?

What pellets are you using?

For the fish, I've heard that mackerel is pretty good (low thiaminase, good fat, but it's fairly low in protein). Tilapia is still low in thiaminase, but to my understanding it would basically be a filler food as it's low protein and low fat (healthy fats are good for fish and people) - I don't know that I'd remove it, but you may want to look at other options (preferably high protein, low thiaminase options) to replace it with. The post by Jay Hemdal in the link below has a decent list of high thiaminase and low thiaminase fish that you may be able to find. I know salmon is pretty much considered the gold standard, but it can be pretty expensive (and I'd imagine it could be pretty hard to come by in India).

With the shrimp, shrimp is a good feed (and doing the whole shrimp is a good call), but you don't want to feed too much shrimp. Fresh shrimp is best if you can get it - I've heard that you want to be careful how much frozen shrimp you feed because of the thiaminase content (to my understanding, Vitamin B1 degrades over time while the thiaminase is more stable; so the longer the shrimp is frozen, the lower the Vitamin B1 content goes, but the thiaminase content stays the same).

That's all that comes to my mind for the moment - @lion king any thoughts?

Alternative foods for predatory fish

Hello I have some predatory fish (miniatus grouper, clown grouper, tesalata eel, small red tooth trigger) I am currently feed them whole fish sold at my local fish shop but its becoming quite pricey what other alternatives could I fees them from a supermarket?

www.reef2reef.com

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

I'd definitely add a bivalve like mussels or clams, they're not only healthy, but they contain a good amount of Vitamin B1 (thiamin), which helps keep predators healthy despite their ingestion of thiaminese.

That said, how long have you had the eels?

What pellets are you using?

For the fish, I've heard that mackerel is pretty good (low thiaminese, good fat, but it's fairly low in protein). Tilapia is still low in thiaminese, but to my understanding it would basically be a filler food as it's low protein and low fat (healthy fats are good for fish and people) - I don't know that I'd remove it, but you may want to look at other options (preferably high protein, low thiaminese options) to replace it with. The post by Jay Hemdal in the link below has a decent list of high thiaminese and low thiaminese fish that you may be able to find. I know salmon is pretty much considered the gold standard, but it can be pretty expensive (and I'd imagine it could be pretty hard to come by in India).

With the shrimp, shrimp is a good feed (and doing the whole shrimp is a good call), but you don't want to feed too much shrimp. Fresh shrimp is best if you can get it - I've heard that you want to be careful how much frozen shrimp you feed because of the thiaminese content (to my understanding, Vitamin B1 degrades over time while the thiaminese is more stable; so the longer the shrimp is frozen, the lower the Vitamin B1 content goes, but the thiaminese content stays the same).

That's all that comes to my mind for the moment - @lion king any thoughts?

Alternative foods for predatory fish

Hello I have some predatory fish (miniatus grouper, clown grouper, tesalata eel, small red tooth trigger) I am currently feed them whole fish sold at my local fish shop but its becoming quite pricey what other alternatives could I fees them from a supermarket?

www.reef2reef.com

Thanks so much for the info (read it thrice to make sure I didn't miss anything

I tried feeding the eels clams but they didn't feel fond of it and just spit them out

I had the tessalata for about 8 months
As for the fine spotted moray I got it recently about 23 days

I use a freshwater pellet food since it's cheaper for me and I thought that the multivitamins i use will be enough for the nutrition, my multivitamins contains extracts of red chaeto algae aswell as garlic, amino acids, minerals and vitamins

And yes salmon is not so common in india and would be really hard to find so lion king already suggested that i may use mackerel because predatory fish need essential oils

I use tilapia since it's really good at soaking the multivitamins and since it being low in thiaminase I am not worried about it destroying thiamine in the multivitamin solution

I also use good quality algae wafers suited for marine and freshwater use which lion king suggested that predatory fish need some algae and they supplement their algae needs through eating algae eating fish

You're right about the shrimp i buy a months worth of shrimp and keep it in my freezer so I might start getting a little bit more less to get it fresh every 10 to 15 days

I also feed them a variety, like feeding tilapia the first day and then after another day I feed shrimp or squid and maybe mackerel or sardine about once a week

I've never had my eels go on an hunger strike so I consider it to be pretty good since i first started with a gymnothorax tile(Indian mud moray) so that I may get familiar with eels and thanks to him I did but sadly he passed away since I bought a tessalata eel for his tank and whenever he would come out to eat he would get stressed by the tess I had him for either 1.5 years or 2 years

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Thanks so much for the info (read it thrice to make sure I didn't miss anything

I tried feeding the eels clams but they didn't feel fond of it and just spit them out

I had the tessalata for about 8 months
As for the fine spotted moray I got it recently about 23 days

I use a freshwater pellet food since it's cheaper for me and I thought that the multivitamins i use will be enough for the nutrition, my multivitamins contains extracts of red chaeto algae aswell as garlic, amino acids, minerals and vitamins

And yes salmon is not so common in india and would be really hard to find so lion king already suggested that i may use mackerel because predatory fish need essential oils

I use tilapia since it's really good at soaking the multivitamins and since it being low in thiaminase I am not worried about it destroying thiamine in the multivitamin solution

I also use good quality algae wafers suited for marine and freshwater use which lion king suggested that predatory fish need some algae and they supplement their algae needs through eating algae eating fish

You're right about the shrimp i buy a months worth of shrimp and keep it in my freezer so I might start getting a little bit more less to get it fresh every 10 to 15 days

I also feed them a variety, like feeding tilapia the first day and then after another day I feed shrimp or squid and maybe mackerel or sardine about once a week

I've never had my eels go on an hunger strike so I consider it to be pretty good since i first started with a gymnothorax tile(Indian mud moray) so that I may get familiar with eels and thanks to him I did but sadly he passed away since I bought a tessalata eel for his tank and whenever he would come out to eat he would get stressed by the tess I had him for either 1.5 years or 2 years

There's also less to no information on the gymnothorax dovii so I might aswell just give him the same food I am giving for the tess but I can see why the gymnothorax dovii doesn't have much info (getting him to feed was hellish) and now after he started to feed, he's an absolute monster more so than my tess though him being atleast 10 inches smaller than my tessy wants to eat the same portion as my tessalata, I've mentioned this before but his metabolism is just a whole another planet in and in of itself besides the fact I confused him for a turkey moray(gymnothorax meleagris) then again for a stout moray(gymnothorax erostus) and then finally coming into a final conclusion of him being a fine spotted moray(gymnothorax dovii)

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I tried feeding the eels clams but they didn't feel fond of it and just spit them out

Interesting and somewhat unfortunate.

I use a freshwater pellet food since it's cheaper for me and I thought that the multivitamins i use will be enough for the nutrition, my multivitamins contains extracts of red chaeto algae aswell as garlic, amino acids, minerals and vitamins

What is the freshwater pellet you use, and what multivitamins do you use?

And yes salmon is not so common in india and would be really hard to find so lion king already suggested that i may use mackerel because predatory fish need essential oils

Yeah, Mackerel is a good substitute.

I use tilapia since it's really good at soaking the multivitamins and since it being low in thiaminase I am not worried about it destroying thiamine in the multivitamin solution

Ah, that makes sense.

I also use good quality algae wafers suited for marine and freshwater use which lion king suggested that predatory fish need some algae and they supplement their algae needs through eating algae eating fish

Yeah, predators typically get their algae needs met by consuming algae eating fish.

I also feed them a variety, like feeding tilapia the first day and then after another day I feed shrimp or squid and maybe mackerel or sardine about once a week

That's probably a good way of doing it.

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

What is the freshwater pellet you use, and what multivitamins do you use?

For the pellets I use optimum which is quite popular here and cheap

For multivitamins i use a brand called api life aayu (sounds like a rip off) but it's a brand made by a lfs in india so i do trust it a bit since it has shown some improvements with my eel being more energetic, the full name of it is called api nutro fit plus

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

For the pellets I use optimum

Do you have any pics of it and it's ingredients and guaranteed analysis (the nutrition info)?

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Do you have any pics of it and it's ingredients and guaranteed analysis (the nutrition info)?

Just took a picture

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Just took a picture

I'm personally a bit hesitant with that one - looks like it's relatively low protein and very low fat. Personally, I'd try to find one that's got more protein (I typically suggest 50% or more protein by dry weight) and a bit more fat (I typically suggest ~10-15% fat by dry weight, with 13% or 14% being my preference at this point).

Granted those suggestions are for regular, non-predator fish, so the values wanted may vary from those numbers slightly, but I wouldn't expect them to very too much (maybe slight less fat and slightly higher protein or something).

What about the algae wafer you're using? Any pics of it and its ingredients and guaranteed analysis?

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

I'm personally a bit hesitant with that one - looks like it's relatively low protein and very low fat. Personally, I'd try to find one that's got more protein (I typically suggest 50% or more protein by dry weight) and a bit more fat (I typically suggest ~10-15% fat by dry weight, with 13% or 14% being my preference at this point).

Granted those suggestions are for regular, non-predator fish, so the values wanted may vary from those numbers slightly, but I wouldn't expect them to very too much (maybe slight less fat and slightly higher protein or something).

What about the algae wafer you're using? Any pics of it and its ingredients and guaranteed analysis?

Just took a picture haha

Since this one is more expensive I wouldn't be surprised that it has better composition

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

I'm personally a bit hesitant with that one - looks like it's relatively low protein and very low fat. Personally, I'd try to find one that's got more protein (I typically suggest 50% or more protein by dry weight) and a bit more fat (I typically suggest ~10-15% fat by dry weight, with 13% or 14% being my preference at this point).

Granted those suggestions are for regular, non-predator fish, so the values wanted may vary from those numbers slightly, but I wouldn't expect them to very too much (maybe slight less fat and slightly higher protein or something).

What about the algae wafer you're using? Any pics of it and its ingredients and guaranteed analysis?

I'll try to get some better pellets but it might be harder to find some good ones and most of my pocket money just goes on buying food for them in the fish market Lol (these big nuggets ain't they?, their food gets more expensive than them) (still love em though)

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Just took a picture haha

Since this one is more expensive I wouldn't be surprised that it has better composition

This one doesn't look too bad - still a bit low in protein and fat though (and surprisingly lacking in algae for being an algae wafer - spirulina is the only algae listed; it's a good one, but I'd hope for a few more in an algae wafer).

I'll try to get some better pellets but it might be harder to find some good ones and most of my pocket money just goes on buying food for them in the fish market Lol (these big nuggets ain't they?, their food gets more expensive than them) (still love em though)

Yeah, good pellets are hard to come by for hobbyists - the three that I know are good at the moment are Otohime pellets, TDO Chromaboost pellets, and New Life Spectrum (NLS) Marine Fish pellets (this one has 8 types of algae and a terrestrial plant); these still aren't as good as fresh/frozen foods (like LRS Reef Frenzy), though, and I don't know if you could find them (at least cost-effectively) in India.

Haha, yeah, big eels like this probably get pretty expensive with their feeding.

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

This one doesn't look too bad - still a bit low in protein and fat though (and surprisingly lacking in algae for being an algae wafer - spirulina is the only algae listed; it's a good one, but I'd hope for a few more in an algae wafer).

Yeah, good pellets are hard to come by for hobbyists - the three that I know are good at the moment are Otohime pellets, TDO Chromaboost pellets, and New Life Spectrum (NLS) Marine Fish pellets (this one has 8 types of algae and a terrestrial plant); these still aren't as good as fresh/frozen foods (like LRS Reef Frenzy), though, and I don't know if you could find them (at least cost-effectively) in India.

Haha, yeah, big eels like this probably get pretty expensive with their feeding.

Thanks for the recommendations, the pellets you have mentioned are really expensive here since they get imported and I can only get them online so I will try to get atleast one of them

Thanks a lot for your help and information

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

Thanks for the recommendations, the pellets you have mentioned are really expensive here since they get imported and I can only get them online so I will try to get atleast one of them

Thanks a lot for your help and information

Hope it helps - and if you find a good pellet there, let me know.

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Hope it helps - and if you find a good pellet there, let me know.

I found some threads of lion king since he told me to and I found hikari saki marine carnivore he said he uses it to feed his new arrivals or injured fish. My gymnothorax dovii was also injured by my tess (he's healed now with just faint marks) but might aswell just give him what he needs

I didn't think I would find it here but I sure did and it's in a good price so I might get that

I also thought of maybe trying out hikari algae wafers? I saw the ingredients list and it says it contains copper sulphate and i am pretty sure that's a no no for an eel

 

[ISpeakForTheSeas]

I found some threads of lion king since he told me to and I found hikari saki marine carnivore he said he uses it to feed his new arrivals or injured fish. My gymnothorax dovii was also injured by my tess (he's healed now with just faint marks) but might aswell just give him what he needs

I didn't think I would find it here but I sure did and it's in a good price so I might get that

I also thought of maybe trying out hikari algae wafers? I saw the ingredients list and it says it contains copper sulphate and i am pretty sure that's a no no for an eel

Hikari Saki Marine Carnivore looks good on protein and fat, and its ingredient list starts out good. However, like the Hikari Algae Wafers, it has some ingredients that I'd personally be a bit hesitant with, including the taurine, DL-methionine, and a number of different metal sulphates added (it contains ferrous, magnesium, zinc, manganese, and copper sulphate, in that order).

Truthfully, I don't know why it would be necessary to add any of these if they're using decent quality meats/algae in the pellets, but, if lion king has been using it successfully, then I'd assume those ingredients are in small enough amounts not to cause issues though (at least not in the short-to-medium term).

The Hikari Algae Wafers I would pass on, though, as the ingredients look very heavy on carbohydrates, which can cause some serious issues like fatty liver disease for predators.

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Hikari Saki Marine Carnivore looks good on protein and fat, and its ingredient list starts out good. However, like the Hikari Algae Wafers, it has some ingredients that I'd personally be a bit hesitant with, including the taurine, DL-methionine, and a number of different metal sulphates added (it contains ferrous, magnesium, zinc, manganese, and copper sulphate, in that order).

Truthfully, I don't know why it would be necessary to add any of these if they're using decent quality meats/algae in the pellets, but, if lion king has been using it successfully, then I'd assume those ingredients are in small enough amounts not to cause issues though (at least not in the short-to-medium term).

The Hikari Algae Wafers I would pass on, though, as the ingredients look very heavy on carbohydrates, which can cause some serious issues like fatty liver disease for predators.

Thank you so much for the info, I will order it today, maybe I won't use much of the pellets and most likely weekly to every 10 days

One of the reasons why I love sardines/mackerel i can use them as a stuffing to feed the morays and it gets even easier when they can swallow the fish whole

 

[lion king]

Hikari Saki Marine Carnivore looks good on protein and fat, and its ingredient list starts out good. However, like the Hikari Algae Wafers, it has some ingredients that I'd personally be a bit hesitant with, including the taurine, DL-methionine, and a number of different metal sulphates added (it contains ferrous, magnesium, zinc, manganese, and copper sulphate, in that order).

Truthfully, I don't know why it would be necessary to add any of these if they're using decent quality meats/algae in the pellets, but, if lion king has been using it successfully, then I'd assume those ingredients are in small enough amounts not to cause issues though (at least not in the short-to-medium term).

The Hikari Algae Wafers I would pass on, though, as the ingredients look very heavy on carbohydrates, which can cause some serious issues like fatty liver disease for predators.

I mention 2 pellets, and to understand my meaning I use them for specific purposes, and minimally. I do not like pellets, we have an lfs here that has their own made without the ingredients that aquatic life should not eat, mainly the grains and dangerous preservatives. As far as the "metal sulfates" you mentioned, these are necessary elements, just as they are for the human body. I do not support chemical nutrients and is one of the reasons I do not commercial pellets of most lfs foods, but these pellets are used for a specific purpose, temporarily and minimally. Copper sulfate in the amount included, again is a necessary element, the copper you understand is not the same and is at a toxic level. The Saki-Hakari pellet, I specifically use for the high level of vitamin c, as vitamin c is great support for the immune system. I only use this one when a new addition is injured or seems to be lacking in general health, just for the period of acclimation until they are in good health. The New Life Spectrum Algae Max, while not perfect, is the best commercial algae pellet I have found, for the specific use of introducing green nutrients. As I have I stated, these nutrients will come from the entrails of prey in the wild. If you are able to introduce live macro algae then that would be the best, but you won't find an eel or a lion nibbling at an algae clip. If you are feeding live, then you can introduce these nutrients by gut loading their food.

 

[jabberwock]

Can we get a couple eel pics???

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Can we get a couple eel pics???

this is Alan the Tessy

And this is Gareth thought he would swallow the squid since he swallowed a whole mackerel before Lol