HELP PLEASE

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I have.. but the point you make about it being in brackish water.. disturbs me.. they are not brackish water fish. I'm more inclinder ot think that the result is from the salt levels in it's system.. which take time. they're is alot of research done on why saltwater fish do not belong in FW and FW do not belong in SW. The salt levels over time are unbalanced. I'm not 100% that this is the case.. but from your picture it appears so to me. I've seen this except the stomach was distended/fat but it doens't appear so from the picture. IMO I would do 10% WC's over the next few days and not add salt.. whats the SG on the tank atm?

GSP's and G-tiles are both SW/brackish. IMO the salt is your likely culprit.

The fact your fire eel has hung on is a good one.
 
i keep my tank on the brackish side
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Scaleless FW fish are among the least tolerant of salt. This may well be the reason for his distress.
 
the quarentine tank doesnt have any salt in it. from the last picture, instead of an arc he's changed to a U shape. the woman in my pet shop had a good look on the net and the only other thin she could come up with was fish TB. i thought this was on the far fetched side.

hospital tank is getting cleaned tonight and a new round of internal bacterial treatment will start. with the shape change he seems to be getting worse.
 
matthewkingoftheworld;4390388; said:
"Since the Fire eel inhabits Southeast Asian rivers and streams, it will prefer a warm temperature between 24-27° C (75-81° F), a pH of 7 and a dH of 10. It will however tolerate a pH in the 6-7.5 range and a dH between 6 and 20. Adding some salt to the water is a very good idea."

this i a direct quote from http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/mix/fireeels.php
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Just because a website says it doesn't make it true.

Aquarium salt or normal table salt is just sodium chloride. It doesn't contain things to harden the water. The article says "adding some salt is a very good idea" after mentioning dh, without giving logic as to why those two things are related.
Are they suggesting adding some other type of salt (Magnesium chloride, calcium chloride???) which will harden the water? Are they suggesting adding sodium chloride and don't understand water chemistry? Are they suggesting adding sodium chloride for some reason not relating to water chemistry and just happened to mention it after mentioning dh?

And besides that "adding some salt to the water" does not suggest keeping the fish a brackish water setup. Brackish water is attained with salt mix, which raises the alkalinity and hardness and also the salinity. Adding a little bit of aquarium or table salt to the tank does none of that (unless dumping large amounts in you won't have any noticable salinity difference).

Fire eels definitely should not be kept in a brackish water setup. They are built to osmoregulate differently than brackishwater fish. Their body is built to uptake salt and expel fresh water (like all strictly fresh water fish). In a brackish set up their body will be put under a lot of strain trying to expel salt and retain water (which strictly marine/brackish fish are built to do).

Some fish are built to survive in both brackish and/or marine and freshwater. Their body can sufficiently excrete salt and uptake water (when living in high salinity), or excrete water and uptake salt (when living in freshwater). Fire eels are not one of these fish. Their osmoregulatory system is built to work with freshwater environments.

while they may survive for a certain amount of time, they will have health issues down the road or die from being kept in brackish due to osmoregulatory stress.
 
the point with the salt was in the five seconds i looked into fire eels and fire eel illness the very first thing said salt was a good idea. lets be honest its not going to be table salt. its marine salt i use. in the very same respect just because you have written something doesnt make it true.

personally i dont think its the salt thats the problem. i recon its a blockage. i cant see him getting better because he's been like this for a week now.

the only question now is how long do i let him suffer

(shadowbass, im really greatful for your comments. )
 
I really wish a few other fire eel keepers would pipe up as to the fact all of theirs are in FW.. Don't take this wrong.. But I would not doubt it's the salt killing your freshwater fish. Everyone who's kept this species for many years and have adults thriving in captivity do not add salt to their tanks. Slowly acclimateing your fire back to FW might save it's life. but the damage has likely been done perminently.

BTW they reccomend adding salt because the species is prone to bacterial infections.. and instead of maintaining the water quality these fish need.. people short-cut and add salt to their systems. Because they are to lazy to maintain them properly. So improper info is not only widely distributed but blindly followed.

Salt is a "cure all" abused by many in the industry. It has it's uses but again.. fire eels are NOT brackish fish.
 
matthewkingoftheworld;4398707; said:
the point with the salt was in the five seconds i looked into fire eels and fire eel illness the very first thing said salt was a good idea. lets be honest its not going to be table salt. its marine salt i use. in the very same respect just because you have written something doesnt make it true.

personally i dont think its the salt thats the problem. i recon its a blockage. i cant see him getting better because he's been like this for a week now.

the only question now is how long do i let him suffer

(shadowbass, im really greatful for your comments. )
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I don't dispute the addition of salt to the water for some health issues (and I'm referring to an amount of sodium chloride that doesn't noticeably raise salinity), when the fish are showing specific symptoms.
But I'm not sure what you expect the addition of salt to do for a freshwater fish that was already showing signs of health issues while being kept in too high of a salinity.

My point was, fire eels are not brackish water fish by nature.
Again - fire eels' osmoregulatory systems are adapted to function best in a freshwater environment. They are not suited to handle brackish environments long term. It puts stress on their osmoregulatory system to be functioning in a manner it's not adapted for.
Some of them may be able to handle low brackish salinity levels for an extended period of time, but the amount of time a freshwater fish will be able to function in brackish water varies from individual to individual, and rarely if ever do they live to reach their expected lifespan for captivity. Same reason that some people can keep brackish fish in freshwater for possibly even years, but the fish generally do not live their full life span. The fishes system eventually cannot handle the stress and they either die or become prone to health issues as their body fails.

You can take that information how you want and make your own choice. I'm not going to push my own ethics off on someone else, I just ask that you at least take the information into consideration before you decide whether to put another freshwater fish into brackish.

Out of curiosity, what was the salinity level in his tank?
 
i've had a sample of my water tested at the pet shop and she says the salt wouldnt be the problem and isnt an issue. what is an issue is the PH. makes sense (kinda) the problems started after a water change. the shop keeper says the PH is about 5.5. and the GH is 125.

she thinks this is the problem.


any thoughts??
 
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