Sick eel - help!

[Yoimbrian]

so I've had my tiretrack about 4 months. I got him the size of a pencil, now he's about 10-12" and 1" thick - he is growing like a weed!!!

Conditions:
-90 gallon tank w/ 20 gallon sump / overflow, good water flow and I have a large bubbler
-water temperature 74
-feed him meal worms and blood worms on an alternating / random schedule, with more fasting days as he gets bigger
-water is very clean, I have never seen ammonia or nitrites since I put him in, and nitrates have always been below 5 (usually 0)
-He is with a few small goldfish and a few small plecos

Everything was normal monday, he spent 99% of his time hiding in his tube (long PVC tube with rocks siliconed to it to sink, I literally haven't seen his body in a full month, he has probably added 30% mass since I've seen him). I turned on the lights yesterday and he was just sitting on the bottom of the tank, upside down. He moves slowly and erratically, he'll like stretch up then plop down. Sometimes he'll spazz out and swim up / quickish (but still slow), but most of the time he just lays there. He doesn't have any visible signs of injury, there are not any white spots or black spots, his skin in general looks really good. He doesn't seem to be breathing harder than normal either. Anyone have any theories?

I did a massive water change (>75%) even though it wasn't really needed, and I bumped the temperature up to 76 (I might keep going a little higher, slowly).

Some theories I have:
-He ate something bad, like a rock
-freaked out over something and hurt himself
-hasn't moved out of his tube in over a month so he's just really out of shape and forgot how to swim / pulled a muscle

Any other theories or things I can do to help?

 

[dragonfish]

Why so cold in the tank? Why are you feeding mealworms, not sure about those as best for fish. Doubt he forgot how to swim and is out of shape. Unless a hungry pleco attacked he probably did not get freaked.

 

[Yoimbrian]

Well the goldfish are on the colder side in general, and 74 seemed to be in an eel's range.

Reading more about goldfish though seems a lot of people keep them up to 80 without a problem (or 85 for short periods), so I'm slowly raising the tank up. Set it to 76 last night and just set it to 78 now. So we'll see if that helps, today he is just kinda sitting there still. he still swims corkscrew though it's actually pretty funny, he does a spiral (belly up, belly down, belly up, belly down) while swimming, and really slow motion. Not getting worse at least....

I read a lot of people do meal worms. I will try red wigglers though next time I feed him. Should I start feeding now if he will take it, or wait until he looks better? Last I fed him was Monday.

 

[xApostle]

don't feed meal worms, feed earthworms. I've currently got three eels with two more on the way and my largest is about 48 1/2cm. my fire eel is about 10" and my smallest, M.Armatus is around 4" I've got another M.Favus coming in and another Fire eel. so far no aggression. all are growing swiftly no problems. all on the diet suggested. i reckon it's your temp. Or one of your plecs got a little territorial. My adonis Plec does that sometimes

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[dragonfish]

Never had an aggression issue with my Adonis. The only head bumping was between the fire eel and ghost knife.


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[xApostle]

Never had an aggression issue with my Adonis. The only head bumping was between the fire eel and ghost knife.


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lool maybe mines just a douche then. It doesn't occur often but sometimes he tries to shift my large favus out the way. he doesn't usually succeed thou

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[MonsterMinis]

mealworms and bloodworms will both cause constipation and the mealworms outter shells are almost undigestable... I would do a round of prazi-pro while used for IPS it also works to help clear the system. Epson salts is also another de-constipator used often in other fish an peas but hed have to eat them for them to work the prazi should by gill absorbtion. You can also try simply changing his diet and seeing if this helps.