Starving Spiny Eel (Sick?)

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 08 Jan 2005, 22:16

I've had my peacock eel for about 6 or 7 months now and i haven't seen him feed once.

i always thought he sustained himself on whatever scraps he he could find. i didn't worry about him.

recently though he looks very thin. his head is clearly wider than his abdomen. you can see this in the photo taken a few weeks ago. he looks worse than this now.

he doesn't react or forage when i put food in the tank. i feed tetra prima in the morning and any combination of frozen bloodworm, tubifex, whiteworm, daphnia, shrimp, blackworm or gammarus in the evening.

he's also been very restless recently, swimming quite incessantly sometimes. tonight he's been adopting a rather uncharacteristic "i'm going to die soon" posture.

i am very worried.

tank details:
60 gal.
ammonia & nitrite 0
nitrate <5mg/l
pH 6.9
KH 1.68Â°dH
GH 3.36Â°dH
temp 26.5Â°C

thanks so much for any help.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 08 Jan 2005, 22:33

Hi Racoll,
I think this is beyond repair. One way or another the stomach gets damaged by not or hardly eating and the fish is therefore unable to keep its food inside. It is now "eating itself up", if you don't mind this rather blunt expression. Soon it will start to circle around itself in a heavily uncontrolled manner and hopefully the end will come quickly. I had these experiences as well, and whatever you offered the eels, they didn't take it. What more can you do?
If you can't stand to see it struggle with death, put it to sleep in the freezer.
Marc

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 09 Jan 2005, 11:40

thanks marc, i thought this might be the case.

i find it unlikely though that he has lasted this long (6 months) not eating at all?

it seems that he has stopped eating in the last month and wasted away.

do you think it's worth putting him in isolation and trying to tempt him with live bloodworms?

cheers.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 09 Jan 2005, 13:27

No, I don't think so. The main problem is that the stomach is no longer working and the fish is therefore simply not able to digest its food.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 09 Jan 2005, 17:12

you're probably right.

what i can't understand is why he's been fine for so long and only recently got ill looking.

any ideas?

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 09 Jan 2005, 20:23

Suppose it was reasonably fed when it came in your tank. Then, for whatever reason, it eats less. And less. And less.
It can do that for quite some time without us noticing anything peculiar. Then it stops eating and lives on its reserve. It uses itself as food. By then we start to notice things. But it's beyond repair. Irreversable, thus no need trying to feed it.
Don't ask me what the reason is that these fish are starving themselves to death. In my Tanganjika days, I also was very unlucky with spiny eels. Couldn't keep them alive.
I once had a Trachelyopterichthys that was in for the same fate. I had turned a piece of driftwood upside down, thus trapping the poor thing.
Didn't see it for months. For some reason I turned the piece of wood around after about 4 months and there it was.
I was very pleased until I saw what was left of my fish: a bony head with a kind of ribbon attached to it. It tried to eat, but couldn't hold the food inside and died after a couple of days. But at least I know why!
Anyway, don't blame yourself. Spiny eels are difficult in a community tank.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 09 Jan 2005, 21:29

perhaps he got ill only recently as the tank has reached full stock.

it may be that he couldn't compete with all the other characins, cichlids and catfish for food.

the strange thing is though that this wasn't because he's shy, he's always swimming round. it's just that he never displays any reaction when i put food in the tank. no foraging behaviour.

very odd.

thanks for your help.

sidguppy · Post by **sidguppy** » 09 Jan 2005, 23:27

Spiny eels are difficult in a community tank.

unless you find out what it truly likes and handfeed it!

I have a Tanganyika-eel in with 4 granulosus, 5 polli's, 7 petricola's, 1 big fat Auchenoglanis, 5 other catfishes and a herd of scum.....if I just toss in food, it would starve to death!

however; most spiny eels REALLY LIKE reathworms; and I trained mine to take small earthworms off a pair of tweezers.

you might try that; it can save your eel....mine doesn't eat anything apart from live earthworms, baby fish (any baby cichlid in that tank is toast!) and the occasional bit of shrimp.

It took a few weeks for them to overcome their shyness when my hand is in the tank; nowadays mine nips me, even when I clean the glass, eager for a worm or two (or three, or four; it's a pig!)

PlecoCrazy · Post by **PlecoCrazy** » 10 Jan 2005, 05:11

We always feel the eels at the store I work at ghost shrimp as well as everything else you mentioned but they really like the live shrimp. I would suggest putting them in after the lights are out to help keep your cichs from getting them all.

When I notice a fish that doesn't seem to be eating very well I try to move him to quarentine to fatten him up and/or figure out what is going wrong.

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 10 Jan 2005, 08:53

well i've set up the quarantine tank anyway. i'll get some live foods. i think he's a bit small for earthworms. maybe i can get hold of some those smaller redworms for fishing.

none of my research suggested i would have had this problem. i wouldn't have bought him if had known.

Post by **Marc van Arc** » 10 Jan 2005, 20:31

I think both helpful gentlemen are missing the point here: we are not talking about a healthy fish; even if you force it to eat, it's very unlikely it'll digest its food.
I hope so of course, but I think it is beyond repair.
If you keep the eel alive, pls let me know

racoll · Post by **racoll** » 11 Jan 2005, 18:59

I thought very hard about putting him down, but my instinct told me to give him a last chance.

He ate some of the frozen bloodworms yesterday and looked very sick last night.

today though he looks much better. he's not lying on his side anymore.

we'll just have to see........