Fire eel looks almost like its shedding

[Chris801]

Hi all, new to forum so hopefully this is the right place for this question.

I have a pretty young fire eel, about 7" currently. He appears happy, eats great, freindly, very active (possibly over active) always out and about comes up to me already, very big personality and im hoping if this is a problem i can catch it fast it looks almost as though he is shedding his skin. No cuts /scrapes /anything i do have a gravel bottom but he has plenty of places to hide so has never attempted to burrow.

I recently had a ich problem with some newer tetra treated with "Mardel" ended up having to do two cycles of it to get it all, did a 25% water change about 4 days ago now. Idk if this has anything to do with it or not but just giving background. I have a 55 gallon tank with 2 penguin 350 filters.

He eats live ghost shrimp i put a few dozen in the tank with him ever 2 weeks. Idk if he over eats but he does eat a few per day, eats during day and night not shy about eating.

I've looked quite a bit but cant seem to find any answers to why he is looking this way. Its been about a week now. I've tested the ammonia and its at 0 will run a sample up to the local store tomorrow to check nitrates again but were good according to them before the water change, dont remeber levels sorry. Hopefully someone knows what this is or if its normal this is my first fire eel but im quite fond of him lol. Hopefully can figure it out. Unfortunately the store i got him from seems clueless about it.

Thanks in advance ill try to upload pics

 

[Fat Homer]

Without clearer pics and solid numbers on main water parameters Ammonia / Nitrite / Nitrate, i'm going to take a guess its the slime coat on the fire eel you are seeing which would possibly explain the shedding look...

Scaleless fish such as fire eels produce this when their bodies are irritated by something in the water or sometimes when things are off to protect their bodies, so i'm again guessing due to the meds being used your eel is not liking it too much and producing excess slime to coat its body from the irritant...

Normally people here deal with ick using simple clean water, salt and heat process, only in extreme cases do people normally use meds... either way, if your eel is eating, keep the water clean and should hopefully bounce back...

I also have to ask, do you have any future upgrade plans for your little guy??? coz they can get pretty large and thick...

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Was thinking along the same lines as fat homer. Probably a reaction to the ick treatment and as long as it's acting normal it should clear up, but keep an eye on it.

I love the fire eels but I do want to warn you, they commonly reach 30" and there are plenty of cases where they reach 40". A larger aquarium will be best for it as it gets bigger. Something in the 220-300 gallon range is really the minimum an adult fire eel should be kept in.

I also want to point out that your fire eel is looking pretty thin. I think that you will be better off to get him off of the live ghost shrimp and on frozen foods, such as frozen bloodworms and shrimp. I have three fire eels and I know they are picky eaters but if you can get them on better food and a variety of it, you will be amazed at how well it helps their growth and health. My two older fire eels eat frozen bloodworms, frozen krill, frozen cut up market shrimp, live red wigglers, and even nibble at some frozen beef heart. My newest addition that is currently in quarantine is only eating live red wigglers right now, but they are very nutritional, so that is working very well for him.

Here are a few pictures of my largest fire eel at about 11" (just took this about a week and a half ago):



This is a 220 gallon tank. You can see that their girth is larger than their head.

Here is a picture comparing that same 11" eel to my new and very thin 7-8" eel:



These are great fish and are a lot of fun to keep. Let me know if you have any other questions and I will do my best to help you with them.

 

[Chris801]

Thanks for the replies!

Great though wish i would of seen this a day sooner. I went to a different fish shop to try and figure this problem out before it took to long, they said it was a bacteria infection and gave me more meds for it, i put a dose in yesterday and one this morning before work. But hearing this im wondering if this is not a good idea? I dont recall the name off hand but ill be home from work in a few hours and let you know. With this info would you recommend to stop treatment? This is my first fire eel so sorry if i sound ignorant.


Also go figure they told me when i bought it that it would only grow to about 8 inches. LOL.

Honestly the first few days i didnt think much of it or that maybe they lied and or just have no real idea what they are selling people.

I didn't have another tank or backup plan for him being i was told originally that he wouldnt get very large. However after much research im working on building a 300 gal tank for him. Will probably take a while to get it done but i figure he should be ok in the 55 for a few months.

Here's hoping to get this right, now im worried im making it worse.

Oh also "go figure" it was the shop i got him from that told me i had to use meds to treat the ich and that he would be fine with it. Also being the ich only took 3 days to be on the fish im taking a guess that they had it when i got them.

 

[Chris801]

As far as feeding, I'll go get some frozen foods tonight. Again was told live shrimp was the best for him. I'm aware ignorance is not an excuse but had expectations of the store having fairly good knowledge lol. Sadly he was the better looking eel they had there.

 

[thefredpit]

hey you live you learn the motto I live by when feeding is variety, variety, variety that way I know they get what they need

 

[Chris801]

Yeah, that's very true. Just don't wanna learn at the expense of this one. Im sure alot of eels act the same but for a little guy hes got a big personality already. Would dam near be willing to mortgage the house to make sure he makes it Lol.

The meds they gave me for the "bacterial infection " is called paraguard.

 

[Chris801]

And I could be wrong here but seems the paraguard is a "i dont know treatment "

 

[Chris801]

Here's hopefully a better picture to see the spots on him. He is starting to act a little less happy now. Did a 50% water change bought a home test kit and the nitrite level is almost 0.25ppm the nitrate is between 5 ppm and 10 ppm. Again maybe it wasn't as good as they said. Going to hope this is the problem. Put Prime in the new water in hopes to detoxify the nitrite. Also added a few more air stones idk if that will help but cant imagine more oxygen being bad in anyway.

 

[Fat Homer]

Okay, i know about paraguard, and its not the worst thing you could be using as far as meds go... but i would recommend in future if you absolutely must dose meds, dose as half dose when dealing with scaleless fish since they can get irritated more easily...

Anyway, regarding your tank, parameters don't sound too bad, but would try to keep them no higher than the level they are at now and if you need to rid yourself of that ich still, i would use the heat and salt treatment immediately and probably stop dosing the meds, since normally heat and salt method is enough to kill off most ich...

Last by not least, lesson learned listening to an LFS, just always remember these guys are a business and their main aim is to make money, so if they can sell you a monster fish + extra meds for your tank, you better believe they will sell it to you (even if there is a cheaper and more effective way to save your fish)... unfortunately this story happens pretty much every where in the world, and research is always going to be your best friend...