Not a Merry Christmas for me either!

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N

Newt

Fire Eel
MFK Member
Jul 18, 2005
1,105
1
68
Michigan's UP
Got up this morning and my fire eel was stuck in the drainage hole of a pot in my tank! :eek:

I was crying and freaking out, the eel wouldn't budge!

My husband came to resuce with a hammer. I held the pot with the eel in it above the tank and he smashed the pot to break it. The eel fell down into the water and swam into his cave.

My eel looks pretty bad, scraped off a lot of skin on its belly and top, white flesh is showing.

I turned off the lights and dosed melafix and primfix, hope the eel makes it.

He didn't even eat his night-crawler tonght :( . He is just sitting in his cave, panting.

No more flower pots in my tanks!

I was pretty bummed at the Christmas party tonight, no one understood why I was so upset and worried about a "fish". :cry:
 
I think your eel will be fine. I had a fire eel that scraped himself up bad after jumping out of his tank. Thought he was gonna die from the way he looked but he eventually healed and lived long after the incident. Got my fingers crossed for ya!
 
When I was a kid, I went on vacation for a weekend, and left my 30 gallon tank unwatched. It had a power filter, and I didn't like the big intake scoop, so I had replaced it with the top of an undergravel lift tube. I didn't realize the reason for the big scoop was to disperse the suction of intake water, but I learned my lesson that weekend.

When I got home, I found a silver dollar (about 3" long) had been sucked into the intake and stuck in the tiny square space available, blocking 99% of the intake flow. When I turned the filter off and released him, he was bent at 90 degree angles in two places, so from above, he looked like three sides of a square! His one side had several bloody lesions. Yet he was swimming.....sort of. I didn't want to kill him, so I left him there and went to bed.

The next morning, his body was almost straightened out!! And he was swimming fine, but still looked pretty beaten up, sure to get an infection. But he didn't, and he ate food that same day. I swear, two weeks later, I couldn't pick him out from the other silver dollars in the tank.

I hope your eel does as well!
 
Your story about the silver dollar gives me hope! I guess fish can be pretty resilant!

Thanks for making me feel a little better!
 
Fish can be tough as nails.....Hope everything works out for you and your fish!
 
We had a tire track eel that we eventually named "Dust Bunny". That little escape artist... One time we put it back in the tank-- it was like a potato chip.
Dust Bunny lived 6 years after that one. You're on top of it!
 
Not to make light of your situation but at least you see your fire eel. Mine does not come out of the gravel....ever. I have never seen it eat. I think yours stands a better chance of surviving than mine. ;)
 
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