Sick Eel?

[Cary14]

Firstly hi everyone!!

Right this week has been a nightmare for my tank!
firstly here are my tank stats
ph. 7.0
nitrite 0 ppm
amonia 0 ppm
nitrate 30ppm - cant seem to get this down tho!!!! (feeding less, bought plants, more frequent water changes)

Right monday one of my dalmation mollies just died suddenly no symptoms!, Then a day later another one died but this one appeared to have a patch of its body whihc was a pink colour, the bloke at the shop said that it was probably ulcers and to tret it with a antibacterial/fungal treatment and so for no more of my fish have died! Excpet now one of my fire eels has a couple of strange lumps on its underside one of which turned a pink colour, a few balls came out of this lump which has now receeded but the other lumps still remain. Will the meds cure the eel??? Ive heard that meds dont work that well on scaless species??

Just to add to this ive only just put an electric blue ram in there! which cost me £20!

Ive been adding myxozin but it doesn't seem to help! And ive today seen one lone baby fish swimming around which got knabbed by one of platys so now im wondeirng if it may be pregnant??

 

[james_fish]

To get the nitrate down I would do a BIG water change rather than frequent one's. 80% I do if it ever gets considerably high.

Few questions for you to give us a bigger picture...

How long has the tank been set up?
How long has the Eel been in there for?
And finally, how big is the tank?

James.

 

[Cary14]

Tank has been set up for about 4 months
The eels about 6 weeks roughly
tank is 11 gallon but the eels are still juveniles and im hoping to upgrade to a bigger tank over the festive period.

I have in there currently
2 ghost knife fish
3 platys
1 molly
1 electric blue ram
1 plec
and the two eels. The sick eel seems to be more aggresive toward the other eel lately also.

 

[james_fish]

Your water could possibly be affected due to a lot of waste in such a small space. The filtration is likely not able to cope, as some of the fish can be very messy!

Plus, i'd upgrade as soon as, and to something very very big. As the Plec, Knife Fish and Eels will need a very big tank.

James.

 

[Cary14]

I took some pics of the eel, see if it helps with identifying the problem!!

When i bought the eels and the knife fish i was told by the shop owner that my tank would be sufficient it didnt take me long to find out using various web forums that it definately wasn't!! Im trying to buy a tank double the size at the moment and then maybe a year after that upgrade again to something around the 6 ft size. I wasn't sure how big the knife fish will get though?

her are the pics of its underside!

http/img189.imageshack.us/i/img0275on.jpg/
http/img571.imageshack.us/i/img0278lc.jpg/

Problem is that 'earnie' moves around alot and so gettin a good pic isn't easy!

 

[Rynofasho]

Dont know / cant see much from the pic, but agreed, thats a lot of fish for a small tank. I'd DEFINITELY get one at least 3 times bigger.

Also, 30ppm of Nitrate should not be of concern and is an acceptable level that won't harm your fish

 

[Cary14]

Sorry i was wrong my tank is 22 gallons, worked it out wrong! Still ive just bought a 350 litre tank so ill be changing it soon. I found out what the problem was, my eel started laying eggs shortly after and hasnt really stopped since! So panic over!

But cheers for the help all much appreciated!

 

[Davo86]

BGKs and larger Eels (Fire, Tyretrack) should be kept one per tank, Once they mature the dominant one in each case will kill the weaker specimen,
The knife will reasonably get to around 14" and your Fire Eel to 24" (although 20" and 39" respectably is possible)

From the pics i'd say the Eel isn't mature enough to produce eggs, and tbh winning the lottery is as likely as getting these to breed
Also have to say that gravel is totally unsuitable for this species