New Addition

[Fish Tank Travis]

Well, I was looking through my LFS last night and I saw this guy. I went ahead and left but last night I was thinking about the coloration and how much red he already had at his size. So, I was at the door when they opened this morning and grabbed him. Lol



He is actually a bit washed out in these pictures because of the ride home. I will try to get some better pictures of him in the next few days, after his color has come back and he is comfortable.

He is about 6-7" and I have him in my 29 gallon quarantine tank for the next several weeks. He is definitely on the skinny side compared to my other two but I'm sure he will fatten up just fine once he gets settled in.

 

[Chub_by]

Very nice! You have 3? I'm jealous.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Yeah, my first two are great, but they haven't got the red color yet and at 12", I'm starting to think that they won't every get any red to them. This guy has a ton of red with great red outlines around his tail already at about 7". I can't wait to see how he looks as he gets bigger. I will have to see if they all end up getting along once this guy gets out of quarantine.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Well, something went wrong with the tank I had set up to QT him and I got a 2ppm ammonia reading. This was after I noticed his color was super washed out and he was swimming weird.

So, I immediately dosed the tank with Prime. It took less than a minute to see him start swimming around a bit, but I didn't want to take any chances so I brought him out in my large net and set the net up to hang in the sump for my 220. He immediately started to color up a bit. I left him there for a few minutes and then went ahead and added him to the tank. I was really hoping to avoid adding him without QT but I think this was best so that he has healthy water. After putting him in and seeing my other eels, I really got to notice how thin he is. At my LFS he was with a lot of similar looking eels, but now that he is in the tank with my other two, I can tell he is really thin compared to them. Hopefully, that won't last long.

Here are a few pictures after he found a nice spot hanging off one of the bulkheads:


Sorry I keep posting crappy cellphone pictures. Maybe I will get a nice camera, or a nicer phone soon to take some better pictures.

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Well, I didn't think that this thread would be going this way but I'm really starting to worry about this guy. He won't eat, even when the bloodworms were floating right by his mouth. He "sniffed" at a few but didn't end up going for them. Here are a few pictures to show how thin he is:



That is the bigger of my two previous eels in the picture with him (scarfing down all of the bloodworms that I was hoping he would get some of.

Here are a few pictures of that same larger fire eel to give you an idea of what my interpretation of a "healthy" eel looks like. Keep in mind, he had just finished eating when I took these pictures. He is around 12".





I'm just starting to think that this guy is so thin that he will soon die if he doesn't eat. But, I am not sure if he maybe needs more time to settle in, or if the 2ppm ammonia that he was in earlier did too much damage for him to recover. Any advice you guys might have is more than welcome as I want to see this poor guy pull through and thrive.

 

[magpie]

I don't have advice but I would say that new fish might skip a few meals.

I'm rooting for him. I love fire eels! Ebony thing keeping me off them is their notorious difficult-to-feed nature.

Let us know how he does over the next few days.

Could you treat the big tank for parasites in case he has them? Are they prone to them? Do you think that might be why he's skinny or maybe the LFS just wasn't feeding him well?

 

[Chub_by]

It could well be that the Ammonia, added to the normal moving stress could have stressed him out real hard. He is thin, but I've seen spiny eels go for a long time without food. I think you've done him a favour by adding him to the tank with the others, seeing them eat might help his appetite. If I were you I would keep feeding regularly, do WCs and maybe even bump the temp up to boost his appetite (of course not if it's already very high)

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

I don't have advice but I would say that new fish might skip a few meals.

I'm rooting for him. I love fire eels! Ebony thing keeping me off them is their notorious difficult-to-feed nature.

Let us know how he does over the next few days.

Could you treat the big tank for parasites in case he has them? Are they prone to them? Do you think that might be why he's skinny or maybe the LFS just wasn't feeding him well?

It could well be that the Ammonia, added to the normal moving stress could have stressed him out real hard. He is thin, but I've seen spiny eels go for a long time without food. I think you've done him a favour by adding him to the tank with the others, seeing them eat might help his appetite. If I were you I would keep feeding regularly, do WCs and maybe even bump the temp up to boost his appetite (of course not if it's already very high)

I was thinking the same thing about the additional stress. However, I couldn't get him to eat with the other eels because they hoarded it all. As much as I didn't want to cause any further stress, I felt I had to move him back to the QT tank after I got it cleaned out.



I cleaned out the tank really well and kept it bare bottom. I put in a piece of PVC for him to hide in. I turned the light on for a few photos, but other than that I have left it off. I used aged water that was already up to temp to refill the tank after cleaning it out. I also refilled my barrel and got the heater going so I could do some daily water changes this week to keep the water in really good shape for him to recover. I gave him a few hours to settle in and then in the evening I gave him just a few pinches of bloodworms so he can have a chance to eat if he wants. But then there's not enough to cause any water quality issues. I will check for them in the morning and clean them out if he didn't eat them. Wish me luck!

 

[Fish Tank Travis]

Hopefully, he will start eating soon and then I will be able to keep him in here for a while before moving him back to the big tank. That way he will have a chance to put on some weight and girth to fit in better with the other guys. Right now, the bigger of my other eels is probably about 10x the girth of this little guy, no joke.

 

[magpie]

Keep us updated!