live food for banded moray

[jacksonpt]

I've got a banded moray that eats like a pig... frozen shrimp, fresh scalops, mysis, and squid. I'd like to be able to give him live food every once and a while as a change of pace... any suggestions? Preferably something inexpensive and heathly.

 

[kev]

Hmm... Since the live food your gonna feed has to be SW, I'm not really sure what you could use. If you lived by the ocean im sure that you could get some small SW baitfish or something of that nature. If you just wanted to feed the eel live food every now and then you could use a small damsel or some type of cheap fish.

 

[jacksonpt]

I've got a friend who is the manager of a local Pet Depot. They don't carry saltwater, but she said she could order for me at cost. I haven't had her order anything for me yet, so I'm not sure about the quality, but she can get me a few kinds of crabs/shrimp for fairly cheap. For example, anemone crabs, arrow crabs, sally lightfoots, red hairy hermts, blue knee hermts, scarlet reef hermits, camel shrimp, CBS, Monkey shrimp and pepermint shrimp are all under $4. They might make a good treat for my eel once or twice a month. Just not sure if they offer any nutrition or not.
I can also get several smaller fish for cheap as well, but I'm not sure if my eel would eat a smaller fish (never had one in with him so I don't know). The last thing I want as I build my tank is a couple of territorial damsels in there. I know my lion would probably take care of them, but the lion is a ways off in my grand plan yet.

 

[jnjf]

We've had about 4 different types of Morray eels. Two of them we could never find their names! We had very good luck with goldfish and minnows for live feeding. They will survive in the saltwater for up to about an hour, giving the eels plenty of time to find them. This was suggested by our fish providers as a healthy cheap live food. Just make sure you don't put too much freshwater in with the saltwater. We scooped out the fish with a net, then fed them. Take out any non-eaten fish so you do not pollute tank.

 

[kev]

I thought that feeding FW feeders to SW fish is bad for them if done for long periods of time? If you did have access to SW feeder fish then im sure you would want to QT them to keep from adding parasites to the tank.