Fire eel not eating after ick treatment

[Newt]

I treated my 75 for ick last week using heat and salt. I also used 1/2 doses of Quick Cure for the first two days. My eel stopped eating on the third day of treatment.

The tank is back to normal now (removed EVERYTHING but the fish and one cave for Mr. Eel), except that I have no substrate because I'm still looking for affordable sand.

My fire eel has eaten only one ghost shrimp in five days He seemed to have to choke that down when he usally eats them faster than they can hit the tank. I don't know if he would've eaten more shirmp because that was my last one, found it hiding in the brackish tank.

He jumps at the worms I put in, but struggles then spits them out. He does this a few times, then gives up and goes back to his cave. Other than not eating he seems healthy, good color, no marks or spots, gill movement is good, he swims around at night and plays in the bubbles a few hours during the day. I even waited for the eel to poo and looked at the excrement under a microscope to check for internal parasites, but saw nothing.

I'm hoping maybe it's the worms. I bought them at the gas station in town instead of the bait shop. The bait shop guy grows his own worms so they are really fresh, but he was out of town. The fire eel would eat a dozen of his worms a night if I let it!

Should I be worried?

 

[danepatrick]

I treated my 75 for ick last week using heat and salt. I also used 1/2 doses of Quick Cure for the first two days. My eel stopped eating on the third day of treatment.

The tank is back to normal now (removed EVERYTHING but the fish and one cave for Mr. Eel), except that I have no substrate because I'm still looking for affordable sand.

My fire eel has eaten only one ghost shrimp in five days He seemed to have to choke that down when he usally eats them faster than they can hit the tank. I don't know if he would've eaten more shirmp because that was my last one, found it hiding in the brackish tank.

He jumps at the worms I put in, but struggles then spits them out. He does this a few times, then gives up and goes back to his cave. Other than not eating he seems healthy, good color, no marks or spots, gill movement is good, he swims around at night and plays in the bubbles a few hours during the day. I even waited for the eel to poo and looked at the excrement under a microscope to check for internal parasites, but saw nothing.

I'm hoping maybe it's the worms. I bought them at the gas station in town instead of the bait shop. The bait shop guy grows his own worms so they are really fresh, but he was out of town. The fire eel would eat a dozen of his worms a night if I let it!

Should I be worried?

i'm not smart or anything, but try an internal parasite medication. it could be the reason that it is not eating. good luck.

 

[bluebeard4ever]

when ever I 've had to treat ich all the fish quit eating for a cuouple days, it starves the parasite

 

[Newt]

when ever I 've had to treat ich all the fish quit eating for a cuouple days, it starves the parasite

Huh?

Ick is an exteranl parasite that burries itself under the fish's skin, in gill tissue, or in fins. The little white bump that we see is the extra slime the fish is producing because it's irritated by the burrowing Ick parasite. Ick dose not "feed" off a fish in anyway. The reason it can be deadly is because skin can fall off or gill tissue dies, causing infections and breathing problems.

Who told you that when you are treating a fish for ick and it stops feeding that the parasite is starving?

It's never good when a fish stops eating, weather being treated or not. Hence my concern. I want to know what I can do to get it eating again.

I'm also worried the Quick Cure could have affected it because spiney eels are really sensitive to medications (that's why I used 1/2 dose of Quick Cure.)

 

[guppy]

Have patience, it could easily be discomfort from the meds or even just wanting a substrate, continue to offer small ammounts of worms each day but don't worry for another week or so, you could try a couple drops of garlic juice on the worms.

 

[Newt]

Thanks for the reassurance, guppy!

I did pick up 100 pounds of sand today and pick up the "good worms" from bait shop guy.

 

[HappyFish]

I have not used "Quick Cure" nor do I have a bottle on hand to look at but I have a sneaking suspicion that it is a liquid form of copper. Copper is a very dangerous thing to use on any fish under any condition. I did not say it should never be used I just think that there are safer ways to kill ick than copper. Copper is affected greatly by your water chemistry and a dose that would be totally safe for the guy in Salt Lake City would kill the heck out of fish in Memphis. I can tell you what a copper over dose generally looks like. You will see fish that normally swim up in the water column sit on the bottom and act like a fat man that just ran up three flights of stairs (trouble breathing). At a slightly higher dose the fish may shudder or shake from time to time as you do from a sudden chill. This may happen very little or several times a minute. Also they may swim into things like they are drunk. If I remember right fish that are scaless are even more sensitive to copper. ( your eel ) If you are now thinking that copper is your problem here is what I would do. #1 Do not add stress to your pet, don`t handle him prod him or bug him, let him rest. #2 He has lost some of his ability to remove oxygen from the water so any thing you can do to raise the dissolved O in the tank will help. #3 Stop feeding him, when we feed fish they use more O in order to process the food given. This is why we do not feed fish for several days before shipping them. If your pet is tolerant of salt I think that a little would help. If it is a copper OD it may take several weeks for him to fully recover. The first 48 hours are going to be the most critical. Wish I could be of more help, best of luck.--HappyFish

 

[Oddball]

I echo Guppy's advise and would add...do a water change, keep the temp over 80F, and replace the salt. Then, THROW THE QUICK-CURE AWAY. This med is OK for scaled fish but, it's copper component can do more harm than good to skinned and fine-scaled species like your eel. If you feel you must add something to augment the increased temp and salt, add methylene blue. It's a food-safe dye that has anti-fungal properties and will not harm your eel.

 

[Newt]

Just to clear it up: I am no longer treating for ick. It is gone. I'm done, not a spot in sight. As of Monday the tank is back to normal, except for the substrate. The treatment lasted one week, with raised temps and salt the whole time and Quick Cure for ONLY the first two days.

Quick Cure dose not contian copper. It is a mix of Formalin and Malachite Green. Both of these are still nasty, I know. That is why I did 1/2 doses. I would NEVER dose a spiny eel with copper, nor any other fish.

Anyways, my eel ate tonight! He ate three worms no problem. I think it was just bad worms from the gas station, who knows how long they were in their bait cooler before I bought them.

Thank you to all who wrote to help. It's nerve wracking when a fish refuses to eat!

 

[Oddball]

Either they've changed quick-cure or the old stuff I used to use has a similar sounding name. The med I'm familiar with contained chelated copper sulphate.
Anyway, glad the eel is eating.