Help With Injured Tire Track Eel.

[Pbaff]

My TT eel in my 120 has an injury to his belly. It is swelled up and the skin appears to be worn thin. In the right light you can actually see through the swelled out area of his skin. The injury has been there for a little over a week now and has not gotten better yet. It doesn't really seem to be bothering him but it looks very bad. Any ideas as to what would of caused this? I don't have a quarantine tank, but I can move him to a 50 gal with smaller tankmates. The problem with the 50 gal is that it has a crushed coral substrate and I'm worried it will hurt him more.

Here is the set up he is in:

Planted 120 gal tank
CO2 injection, but no fertilizer dosing
Pool filter sand substrate
Some driftwood and quite a few plants
Tankmates: Jack Dempsey, Senegal Bicher, ropefish, lacefin cat, bristle nose pleco, Australian Rainbow, Siamese Algae Eater, and a blue crayfish.

Sorry for the poor quality pics and dirty glass.

 

[jstehman]

How long have you had him?

He looks a little thin. Has he been eating?

Seems like its not bothering him much

Could be intestinal blockage from ingesting sand or internal parasite.

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[Pbaff]

I've had him for four or five months now (I think). He never used to come out and several times I thought he was dead. Several weeks ago he started coming out and eating, but only live foods. I've been giving him cut up earth worms recently and that was helping but then this stomach thing happened.

 

[jstehman]

Maybe he's *extremely* full. Are you feeding every day?

Might try going a few days without feeding and see if the swelling subsides.

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"And if I can't have everything, well then just give me a taste"

 

[Pbaff]

I feed a little something every day. I usually only feed live worms once every two or three days when I have them, but it has been a week or so since he got any. If he is eating any of the pellet food I've never seen him do it. I do like to drop in some sinking algae wafers after the lights go out for my crayfish, but I don't think he is eating those either.

 

[Monster_Minis]

Looks like an infected wound/ bacterial infection. He needs to be separated and given antibiotics at this point. Hes not thin hes emmaciated... Keep feeding him chopped up worms just a lil once twice a day until hes better then as much as he'll eat until he fattens up. Also once hes healed before putting him back a round of deworming would not so him any harm, particularly if he doesnt fatten up in a few weeks post infection. He can and will die left untreated.