so some time ago I came up with the brilliant idea of introducing a spiny eel to my 55g Mbuna tank......thinking of fry patrol. Well, the first one I introduced was a bit to small, and what ever food I put in the tank would be gone before it even hit the bottom.....so, I decided to pick up a 10g tank to try and fatten up the eel before going back in.

Hearing that spiny's will eat guppies when larger, I thought it would be a good idea to toss a couple in the tank...hoping that the incoming fry would be a nice means to "bulk up" Mr. Eel. So far I am kinda disappointed with my decision. This is the first time I have every had guppies, but they are freaking ravenious eaters! that is all they do is eat eat eat and eat. They never get full!

I have tried feeding, then introducing some frozen blood worms for the eel....but the guppies just tear it up! Today I picked up some live blood worms and put a full teaspoon full into the tank "thinking there would be plenty of live ones to live in the tank for a while", boy was I wrong. the eel had some...but the guppies just picked the bottom steady for over 20min. Each one is so fat now that I think they will pop. Hell....my cichlids will only eat so much before they have had enough...but not these guppies!

Part of me really wants to get rid of them.....but I am still thinking that the assoicated fry will be a good food source. But now I am just thinking that the eel may starve to death before then. I know I can do other fish, as I have 3 cherry barbs in the tank as well...and they are hardly the aggressive eaters that guppies apparently are.

I dont know. Any advice?

p.s. I have the following in the tank atm:
1 starry night eel
3 cherry barbs
6 fancy guppies "2 male, 4 females"
aprox 12 ghost shrimp

I think it is funny you buy a fish for the purposes of feeding another fish. Everything will eat guppy fry. Once the female has her babies, what then? Most Guppies don't have that many babies. There are ones that can have 100+ fry, but unless you buy a really mature female you may not get something like that. None of my females produce more than 15-20 at a time and they produce about every 30 days. So overall the idea may subsidize the diet of your eel, but believe it can't be the primary source or it may starve.

so you are suggesting that I get rid of the guppies and just keep the eel in there with the barbs or even a few neon tetras "for color"....and toss in some more live blood worms? Trust me, I dont have a problem doing this.....I am just very suprised by the way the guppies eat

I'm just saying that unless you have a separate tank full of Guppies to provide this food, then the plan might not work. And even then, how can you make sure it's just the eel that eats them? I'm not saying destroy the Guppies. They do eat a lot but their metabalism is very high and they are super active fish.

I guess I could always put the guppies in my cichlid tank for now


I kid of course