tire track eel suicide mission

[jah29]

i got a tire track eel last july that was about 4in long. ive always kept him in a 55g tank with lava rock and pvc pipes to hide. hes always been a great eater and ive never had any problems with him until now. hes up to about 15in now and a couple weeks ago he stopped eating. he usually goes crazy for blood worms and live roseys, but now he wont even acknowledge the food. he also keeps jumping out of his tank and climbing up into the filter, luckily every time it happened so far i was there to put him back in the tank.

what should i do? is the 55g tank possibly too small for him now?

 

[meghanashley]

I would upgrade the tank. They are pretty active once the lights go out. Whats your water like, tankmates? He sounds stressed

 

[seanathon]

you shouldn't have been feeding it any type of feeder fish. spiny eels are extremely suseptable to bacterial infections and those fish are raised in filth. Also i heard when they get bigger they sometimes move from lava(bloodworms) to adult worms(nightcrawlers, red worms).

Not eating and acting weird might be signs of an infection or maybe it just wants something else. i would get some worms and see how that works and i would consider treating it with maracyn 1

 

[loganh83]

I am not familiar with the mating habits or size of maturation of this particular eel but could it be the case that it has reached sexual maturity and now desires to migrate to spawing grounds? Any eel guys out there?

 

[meghanashley]

I've grown out an eel from 6" to 2'4", and currently have one around the 17" mark. I have never experienced this behavior, but then again every fish is different.

 

[meghanashley]

The only time I've had them jump is when I moved them into a holding container when moving a tank or something