Fish jumped out - is it too late to save him??

[dragonsong]

Was away from home for 2 days and apparently last night my tiretrack eel bailed from the tank (no idea how, everything is covered!!!) but he was found dried up behind the tank and today I came home and thought he was dead but his gills are still moving and his pectoral fins are moving very slowly but here's the thing, the rest of his body is really stiff.. his slime coat is there so it's regenerating, and his belly is soft but the rest of him is stiff...he shouldn't even be alive from that but he is.

...is he too far gone to save?

 

[Zfishies]

Its nevet to late man! keep us updated!

 

[ceeej31]

get him back in the tank asap, keep the water clean and treat with salt, it doesn't sound good but it wont hurt to try

 

[Zfishies]

And save his dna and clone him! That is one hardy fish!

 

[Cookie*]

It doesn't sound good, but I certainly would not give up on him/her. It may be a bit painful to sit there and watch and not be able to do anything, so just check in on the tank every so often to make sure things are ok. If there's other fish in the tank that can be aggressive, I'd also watch out for them going at the injured fish. Best of luck with it.

 

[dragonsong]

He's been back in the tank since last night but I just got home and hooked up 2 more airstones and now there's some salt in the tank too. I thought he was dead!! It looked like the current was making his fins move but he's breathing a little better so now I can tell. I didn't know it was possible for a fish to return after being that dry- nearly crispy. He was out from anywhere between 1 and 3 hours.

 

[Chicklette]

Wow, keep us updated on him. That's amazing, I hope he lives.

 

[aclockworkorange]

Hope he pulls through! I am going to double seal everything on my tank this evening for my fire eel after reading this one!

 

[pi-eyed]

Eels are very hardy creatures and very adept escape artists as well... My TT is always up to something..lol

G.L. and keep us posted,
Chris

 

[aclockworkorange]

Yes, I noticed my fire eel eyeballing the output of my FX5 last night... it automatically turns off for 2 minutes every 24 hours in order to pump out any trapped air, and I'm pretty sure he is just waiting for a chance to explore it!