Did I need to do this?

[HAAAAAAAA]

From last night's feeding one of my biggest eels had an anchovy stuck in his gills (didn't think I would ever be saying that) I waited all night to see if he would remove it by himself since he did seem to be rubbing his gill to the rocks and what not, by the next day he still had not been able to remove it, i had expected the anchovy to be stuck near it's pharyngeal jaws aswell as blocking the gills entrance hence I believed that I had to take some action before the anchovy decays And causes an ammonia spike hence these are the following procedures I took:

I took a container and filled 1/3 of it with the tanks water

I took the eel out and placed it in the container with a net holding him down

I used a tweezer to hold the anchovy's head from outside the gills to push it into the mouth

When the eel opened its mouth i gently pulled it out which took about 9 tries

After that I made sure to use a syphon to gently blow inside the eels gills to remove any or every flesh from the anchovy making sure that I don't push any bubbles inside

To make sure there isn't any infection i used methylene blue in that same container has a bath since I've had success with it before when some of my eels came in with an open wound due to fishing hooks

@Jay Hemdal

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

From last night's feeding one of my biggest eels had an anchovy stuck in his gills (didn't think I would ever be saying that) I waited all night to see if he would remove it by himself since he did seem to be rubbing his gill to the rocks and what not, by the next day he still had not been able to remove it, i had expected the anchovy to be stuck near it's pharyngeal jaws aswell as blocking the gills entrance hence I believed that I had to take some action before the anchovy decays And causes an ammonia spike hence these are the following procedures I took:

I took a container and filled 1/3 of it with the tanks water

I took the eel out and placed it in the container with a net holding him down

I used a tweezer to hold the anchovy's head from outside the gills to push it into the mouth

When the eel opened its mouth i gently pulled it out which took about 9 tries

After that I made sure to use a syphon to gently blow inside the eels gills to remove any or every flesh from the anchovy making sure that I don't push any bubbles inside

To make sure there isn't any infection i used methylene blue in that same container has a bath since I've had success with it before when some of my eels came in with an open wound due to fishing hooks

@Jay Hemdal

Sounds like it worked. Methylene blue is really old school, as a dip, it has little effectiveness against bacteria.

I've had eels come in with fish hooks inside them, that could only be seen through X-rays.

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Sounds like it worked. Methylene blue is really old school, as a dip, it has little effectiveness against bacteria.

I've had eels come in with fish hooks inside them, that could only be seen through X-rays.

Fish hooks!? I am now really glad that mine had only fish hook marks but I didn't x ray them, i recently had 3 eels come in and about 2 of them had fish hook marks with one of the 2 having quite a severe jaw lesion which has healed


Should I had used acriflavine combined with malachite green? The previous eel which had a bacterial infection with a deep wound has healed it's wound but the bacterial infection is quite stubborn, i did the same methylene blue bath for him

I currently made a quarantine tank since i have a new eel coming soon, can I use that to treat the bacterial infection with acriflavine mixed with malachite green?

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Fish hooks!? I am now really glad that mine had only fish hook marks but I didn't x ray them, i recently had 3 eels come in and about 2 of them had fish hook marks with one of the 2 having quite a severe jaw lesion which has healed


Should I had used acriflavine combined with malachite green? The previous eel which had a bacterial infection with a deep wound has healed it's wound but the bacterial infection is quite stubborn, i did the same methylene blue bath for him

I currently made a quarantine tank since i have a new eel coming soon, can I use that to treat the bacterial infection with acriflavine mixed with malachite green?

I would not use malachite green on eels. It is toxic to freshwater scaleless fish, including eels.

Acriflavine is an o.k. "antibiotic", but it is actually just an antiseptic. You would be better off using a broad spectrum, gram negative, true antibiotic such as Neomycin or Kanamycin.

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

I would not use malachite green on eels. It is toxic to freshwater scaleless fish, including eels.

Acriflavine is an o.k. "antibiotic", but it is actually just an antiseptic. You would be better off using a broad spectrum, gram negative, true antibiotic such as Neomycin or Kanamycin.

Thank you so much! I did not know that about malachite green or its toxicity towards scaleless fish, thanks to your suggestion and advice, I'll now make sure that I keep atleast one of those laying around, i do know that kanamycin can cause ototoxicity so if I can I'll get neomycin instead