Eel dead - again.

[Eelzor]

Ok, I must calm myself down...My spiny eel died today for a totally unknown reason. I am REALLY getting p***ed off now with trying to keep eels alive. That was my 3rd eel dead. I think I might try another fish, but I like the eel type swim. ALTHOUGH, there are a few things I spotted concerning the eel and one of these reasons may be the reason it died.

1. There was a bit of reddish under his belly.
2. We had a blackout a few days ago, before that he was fine - Was that it?
3. All my fish are living perfectly, why did the eel die!!
4. I am thinking this may be the cause of death - Strangely, I had seen this the first time we bought it - The eel had the bottom part of its tail fin reddish.

All the inhabitants in the tank is 4 angelfish, 4 clown loaches 1 black ghost knife and a female swordtail. Trust me, it has nothing to do with bullying as the other ifsh never touched the eel. I'll have to get my 4th eel.

 

[CFC]

If you have had a black out have you tested the water parameters?

If your filter was off long enough for bacteria to start dying off and was left in the tank the dead bacteria would have caused ammonia and nitrite spikes (little tip here, if you have a power cut remove all the filter media to a bucket of tank water so it can be washed before restarting the filter when the power comes back on). As im sure you know these poisons are most concentrated at the bottom of the tank which just happens to be where your eel which is sensative to water parameters lives. The red colouring is a sure sign of nitrite poisoning so i would do a large water change asap if you havent already done one, keep a eye on your BGK too.

 

[wuvmybetta]

So sorry Eelzor

 

[Eelzor]

Ok, I did a water parameters check and here are the results,

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm

It definatly wasn't the paras. I might not bother on getting another eel anymore. My BGK is so very fine and scruffing down food like theres no next second.

 

[Alien_spawn]

Sorry to hear about your loss, I too have had problems with spiney eels, One managed to swim down the output pipe to face his death inside my filter and my other one just disappeared (they seem to be great escape artists)

I've kinder given up on them

 

[simonas]

Ok, I must calm myself down...My spiny eel died today for a totally unknown reason. I am REALLY getting p***ed off now with trying to keep eels alive. That was my 3rd eel dead. I think I might try another fish, but I like the eel type swim. ALTHOUGH, there are a few things I spotted concerning the eel and one of these reasons may be the reason it died.

1. There was a bit of reddish under his belly.
2. We had a blackout a few days ago, before that he was fine - Was that it?
3. All my fish are living perfectly, why did the eel die!!
4. I am thinking this may be the cause of death - Strangely, I had seen this the first time we bought it - The eel had the bottom part of its tail fin reddish.

All the inhabitants in the tank is 4 angelfish, 4 clown loaches 1 black ghost knife and a female swordtail. Trust me, it has nothing to do with bullying as the other ifsh never touched the eel. I'll have to get my 4th eel.

Ive had many eels over the years and keep a 10 inch fire eel successfully at themonent.

The only problem I have had with them and what I suspect could have been the demise of yours is feeding. Some take food straight away and some just starve. My fire eel now was one of a pair. He eat from the start whilst the other went three months without food and wasted away. ifthey take to food straight away you have no probs.

Get a tyre track eel of a decent size as the two I have had have taken frozen foods straight away which is what you need.

I have one on order from Trimar now as unfortunately the tyre rack i had , had for years climbed out of tank!! doh

 

[simonas]

Ok, I did a water parameters check and here are the results,

Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5ppm

It definatly wasn't the paras. I might not bother on getting another eel anymore. My BGK is so very fine and scruffing down food like theres no next second.

don't give up but if it was a small one buy a slightly bigger one and see him eating first. they should be easy to keep

 

[plecoguy]

do you have salt in the tank? some fish are really sensetive to that. back when i had a lot of plecos, i made the mistake of having salt in the tank and it got some pretty nasty sores.

 

[Eelzor]

The only problem I have had with them and what I suspect could have been the demise of yours is feeding. Some take food straight away and some just starve.

Mine ate very scruffly, until the night before his death!

ifthey take to food straight away you have no probs.

Mine always took food form me, until the night before his death.

do you have salt in the tank? some fish are really sensetive to that. back when i had a lot of plecos, i made the mistake of having salt in the tank and it got some pretty nasty sores.

I have completely no salt in my tank - In fact I read that eels benifit from salt. But I have no salt anyways.


After thinking a while - I am almost completely certain that the blackout was what caused it. He was one of the more weaker fish in the tank and the blackout ran for about 4-5hours, maybe 6. I'll have to give it one more shot. (I have to now use my money I was supposed to use on improving my tank scenery on another eel )

 

[Black Ghost]

Thats tough. I'm not sure really where you went wrong. I could be something in the water still that doesn' t show up in the tests. Perhaps something is added to the water you are using that just doesn't agree with that particular type of fish. Or it could just be bad luck. I have the same luck with dwarf gouramis. I cannot keep those things alive but have little problem with the larger ones.

 

[Eelzor]

Well whatever it was, I'm not getting another eel, I just made the final decision a few minutes ago.

 

[tdins_2]

i no nothing of eels but why dont you try to rearrange you set up or maybe the tankmates are harrasing him

 

[Shark_Lover]

I'm sorry.

 

[ryan]

Sorry to hear about your loss Elzor.

CFC, how long does it take for the filter to be off before the bacteria starts to die?

 

[CFC]

The bacteria in the filter start to die off the moment the flow of water is stopped going through the media. The bacteria need a large ammount of oxygen to be able to funtion (hence the idea of bio wheels and wet/dry systems where oxygen can be absorbed form the air to allow more bacteria to form), switching filters off for longer than 10 to 15 minutes is not recomended and any time longer than this can result in the tank being poisoned.