Banded Snake Eel help

[Slocke]

It's way too early to tell, or panic. He doesn't seem overly stressed from what I can see, The yawning thing is to clean his gills, just notice if a he starts to shake his head. The yawning with a head shake could be an indictor of flukes, which eels do come in with often. Did you happen to test the sg in his transport bag, some suppliers run low sg to suppress disease and parasites, and a high rise in sg can cause as issue. You kind of have to give it a little more time, just make sure the water quality is right. Moving him will just make any stressful situation worse. Is that rock structure set up in a way he can burrow into, if not move the rocks around to give him the opportunity for some cover. I would definitely offer him the live ghost shrimp, that will be a true tell if there's an issue.

When it went on its side I started to panic. It’s now in a dark container with a heater and airstone and water from my reef tank which I know isn’t toxic. I’m going to leave it overnight to try and keep it as unstressed as possible.

 

[lion king]

Sorry I missed the part about him being on his side, that is a possible indicator of osmodic shock. Did you happen to get the sg from the transport water. Osmodic shock occurs when you take fish from low sg, I have seen suppliers and lfs run 1.018-1.020, and put them in a much higher sg, Safely it is not best to raise the sg more than ,002, with an extended acclimation which cou;d be 3-4 hrs possibly .004. If the sg was low to acclimate up to 1.025 is a far stretch and sometimes results in osmodic shock, which can be deadly. Without knowing the original sg you can not know for sure, let's hope this is not the case. At this point I;m not sure if anything could be done you just have to wait it out.

 

[Slocke]

Sorry I missed the part about him being on his side, that is a possible indicator of osmodic shock. Did you happen to get the sg from the transport water. Osmodic shock occurs when you take fish from low sg, I have seen suppliers and lfs run 1.018-1.020, and put them in a much higher sg, Safely it is not best to raise the sg more than ,002, with an extended acclimation which cou;d be 3-4 hrs possibly .004. If the sg was low to acclimate up to 1.025 is a far stretch and sometimes results in osmodic shock, which can be deadly. Without knowing the original sg you can not know for sure, let's hope this is not the case. At this point I;m not sure if anything could be done you just have to wait it out.

You may well be right. It would certainly explain the symptoms. My only counter to that is that it’s not how I’d expect it to happen.
It looked sick before I added it to the tank and it seemed to begin Setup rating during the drip. Since it was a normal airline drip into a larger than normal bag I would have thought that the shock would have occurred because I didn’t drip enough.

Thanks for the help anyways. From my experience of how it looks now it won’t survive the night.
I feel awful.

 

[MnFish1]

I feel awful. I’ve gone from working to save endangered animals in Africa to killing awesome fish because I can’t resist having cool creatures in my life.

Dont be hard on yourself - there are lots of reasons fish die - from collection, etc. you've done the best you can - and additionally - we dont know the outcome yet

 

[lion king]

It looks like you had an observation tank set up. For future reference: when you receive a fish, test the sg in the bag, and adjust your observation tank. Then over time raise the sg in the observation to your reef. This is a common overlook, and many people lose fish and never understand why. It's really not a good idea to raise the sg more than .002 over a 1-2hr acclimation, going lower doesn't matter. Suppliers do this to keep parasites and diseases at bay, the problem with this is that it just suppresses any issues, and as soon as the sg starts to rise, the issues will come sometimes with a vengeance. Anytime you test lower than 1.020, I would say be prepared. With eels you are mainly looking for internal parasites, and possibly flukes, they are very resistant to protozoan diseases like ick and velvet.

 

[Slocke]

It looks like you had an observation tank set up. For future reference: when you receive a fish, test the sg in the bag, and adjust your observation tank. Then over time raise the sg in the observation to your reef. This is a common overlook, and many people lose fish and never understand why. It's really not a good idea to raise the sg more than .002 over a 1-2hr acclimation, going lower doesn't matter. Suppliers do this to keep parasites and diseases at bay, the problem with this is that it just suppresses any issues, and as soon as the sg starts to rise, the issues will come sometimes with a vengeance. Anytime you test lower than 1.020, I would say be prepared. With eels you are mainly looking for internal parasites, and possibly flukes, they are very resistant to protozoan diseases like ick and velvet.

Thanks for the advice.
I was worried about my other tanks as they’re not eel proofed but that’s a great point you make.
I’ll call the LFS tomorrow and ask about their salinity. Haven’t had a problem before but I try and drip everything.

 

[Slocke]

They do keep their fish, inverts, and corals in the same water parameters I know. Could they keep corals that low?

 

[lion king]

It's just a thought, hopefully he'll be fine. Some species or individuals within a species will be more affected. Because it doesn't happen everytime some people think there is no concern, but there is a concern. Eels are very resilient once acclimated and can live in many conditions. As long as the changes are incremental, they do not like quick wide changes in chemistry. Did your lfs have him for a while or did they order him for you, they also don't like multiple changes in chemistry in a very short time. Like arriving at you lfs yesterday and put into their tank, then you pick him up today and put him into your tank. Again this doesn't cause a problem everytime, but it does cause problems

 

[lion king]

They do keep their fish, inverts, and corals in the same water parameters I know. Could they keep corals that low?

No then he was in reef conditions which would likely be 1.025. As my previous post. had he been at your lfs for at least a few days.

 

[Slocke]

It's just a thought, hopefully he'll be fine. Some species or individuals within a species will be more affected. Because it doesn't happen everytime some people think there is no concern, but there is a concern. Eels are very resilient once acclimated and can live in many conditions. As long as the changes are incremental, they do not like quick wide changes in chemistry. Did your lfs have him for a while or did they order him for you, they also don't like multiple changes in chemistry in a very short time. Like arriving at you lfs yesterday and put into their tank, then you pick him up today and put him into your tank. Again this doesn't cause a problem everytime, but it does cause problems

They've had it and all their eels for about two months. They all looked relatively healthy despite being in a small tank for so long. Even the black ribbons.

 

[Slocke]

I now wonder if it is something tin this tank. The only chemical I used when refurbishing was rubbing alcohol before resealing the tank but maybe some of the equipment or the new sand had something that I should have rinsed off. Either that or it was already wasting away and the extra stress of the move did it in.

 

[lion king]

I don't see an issue then, maybe this guy just acted weird in acclimation. He should be fine. I hate getting into the "maybe this or that" because there are so many scenarios that will never happen.

 

[lion king]

I now wonder if it is something tin this tank. The only chemical I used when refurbishing was rubbing alcohol before resealing the tank but maybe some of the equipment or the new sand had something that I should have rinsed off. Either that or it was already wasting away and the extra stress of the move did it in.

Another one of those scenarios, the stress of a move triggers an underlying condition. I'm still hoping for thd best.

 

[Slocke]

Still alive this morning. Still not looking good but moved a bit.
I’m doing a 100% water change and rinsing all the sand and filters

 

[lion king]

Do you know what they were feeding him and the last time he ate. Sounds a little confusing with all considered he should be fine. As I mentioned earlier the stress of a move can trigger an underlyong condition. Without that, a trip from a lfs and no osmodic shock he should be fine considering he had already been established at the lfs.

 

[Slocke]

I don’t know when last fed. The LFS opens in an hour when I’ll ask. They fed them live ghost shrimp and some frozen food I think.

It’s upright again which is obviously a good sign.

 

[lion king]

Some fish can act wonky after transport, lets just hope thats what it is. Ask tbem if it would be common for them to act like this initially, with everything considered there should not be an issue. I would start with live ghost shrimp intially. And I would stop making any changes to his environment. Even once established eels can act weird and even go off feeding when their environment is upset.

 

[Slocke]

Another one of those scenarios, the stress of a move triggers an underlying condition. I'm still hoping for thd best.

Stress alone can kill in some the animals I worked with. Antelope where particularly bad as the smallest amount of human contact while distressed could cause them to get so stressed they'd die. My ex-colleagues who did the rescues and vet work always hated getting calls of antelope stuck in snares.

 

[Slocke]

Some fish can act wonky after transport, lets just hope thats what it is. Ask tbem if it would be common for them to act like this initially, with everything considered there should not be an issue. I would start with live ghost shrimp intially. And I would stop making any changes to his environment. Even once established eels can act weird and even go off feeding when their environment is upset.

I put a small chunk of salmon in with it. Hopefully it will eat it but not expecting anything.

I'm worried about returning it to the tank. It won't be ready for a long time yet as I'll want to let the filter remove the particulates/settle them out. I could do the 10 gallon hospital but that would require sealing and I'm not sure how well I can do that with its overflow filter. The other option is the reef tank which would be far easier to seal but has both potentially aggressive fish and edible fish and inverts.

 

[lion king]

Stress alone can kill in some the animals I worked with. Antelope where particularly bad as the smallest amount of human contact while distressed could cause them to get so stressed they'd die. My ex-colleagues who did the rescues and vet work always hated getting calls of antelope stuck in snares.

Absolutely right, people that haven't worked or studied animals that closely don't understand this. Your situation is now soundind a bit complicated, but you do have to establish a consistent comfortable environment.