Moray eel acting strange.

[SALTY 75]

my moray eel has been acting a little lethargic recently, he still eats very well but i have noticed that when he is in his cave he lays in some weird positions and kinda bends his head in an odd way. Sometimes he seems to breath in an irregular way but other times he seems totally fine. his body seems kinda puffy or a little fatter in his middle area than normal. i really dont know what has been bugging him, he ate a crab that i put in the tank on tuesday but i think he has gotten over that. ever now and again he will open his mouth really big and then do a weird head twitch, i dont know if that could be nerve damage or what? i have had him about a year or maybe a little less.

my parameters are as follows

nitrate o-5 ppm
nitrite is o ppm
ammonia is 0 ppm
ph is 8.0-8.2
temperature is 74-76 degrees

Any help would be great. Thanks

 

[SALTY 75]

i also forgot to say he has been acting a little strange for about a week now. and sometimes he seems better sometimes he seems worse.

 

[Billdogg]

What kind of Eel and how big is it, what size tank, and what other inhabitants? What are you feeding it and how often?

IME (I kept a Gymnothorax Undulatus for 25 years), Eels are amazingly resilient. As long as it is eating it will probably be just fine. Mine would go on occasional hunger strikes, the longest being 6 months. I just kept offering it a variety of things from the Kroger Seafood counter until one day it started eating again like nothing had ever happened.

Pictures might help too.

hth!

 

[Dom]

Sorry to hear this guy is having difficulties. Puffy in the middle after eating a crab on Tuesday... Is it possible the crab has created a blockage? Or maybe a difficult time processing it?

Following along...

 

[SALTY 75]

What kind of Eel and how big is it, what size tank, and what other inhabitants? What are you feeding it and how often?

IME (I kept a Gymnothorax Undulatus for 25 years), Eels are amazingly resilient. As long as it is eating it will probably be just fine. Mine would go on occasional hunger strikes, the longest being 6 months. I just kept offering it a variety of things from the Kroger Seafood counter until one day it started eating again like nothing had ever happened.

Pictures might help too.

hth!

it is a golden tail moray eel,Gymnothorax miliaris i think he is around 12-16 ish inches and he is in a 75 gallon tank right now. the only other tank mates are a dwarf angel fish and a lantern bass. and yess i know that i am going to have to get rid of those fish soon. i feed him different things i have given him scallops, shrimp,small whole fish (not goldfish),multiple different types of frozen cube food. i try to feed him 3 to four times a week. right now he is eating scallop.

 

[SALTY 75]

Sorry to hear this guy is having difficulties. Puffy in the middle after eating a crab on Tuesday... Is it possible the crab has created a blockage? Or maybe a difficult time processing it?

Following along...

Yeah i thought about that as well because when he ate the crab he had a big lump in his belly and then he just layed in his cave for a while. But after a day the lump was smaller so i had assumed he had gotten over it. and on thursday the lump wasnt even really noticeable anymore. i bought epson salt just in case though.

 

[Dom]

Yeah i thought about that as well because when he ate the crab he had a big lump in his belly and then he just layed in his cave for a while. But after a day the lump was smaller so i had assumed he had gotten over it. and on thursday the lump wasnt even really noticeable anymore. i bought epson salt just in case though.

Well... if the lump is getting smaller, it may just be having a difficult time processing the crab. Time will tell.

Also, perhaps feeding it something other than cabs in the future?

 

[Webslinger]

The head shake is when he's trying to smells something in the water. It's a food sensing action. My Dwarf golden does it all the time when he's hungry.

 

[Billdogg]

Avoid feeding it anything that came from freshwater. The fatty acids are different in FW fish and the Eel can't digest them.

Also - Eels are opportunistic feeders. They really don't need to be fed more than once or maybe twice a week IME. Hannbal's food consisted of 2 or 3 palm sized filets of whatever Kroger had that was about to go out of it's "best if sold by" date. I got to know the people there and they would save me stuff that otherwise would have been tossed.

Here he is when he was just a little guy - still under the 3' mark. The cleaner shrimp were the only long-term tank mates he would tolerate. They'd crawl right into his mouth and out his gill holes picking at tidbits.

 

[SALTY 75]

Well... if the lump is getting smaller, it may just be having a difficult time processing the crab. Time will tell.

Also, perhaps feeding it something other than cabs in the future?

ok so i just put a little scallop juice in the tank to draw him out and he now has another lump in his belly that has the shape of another crab so maybe it is just after he eats a crab he acts weird because he is really full? and yeah the crabs were supposed to be part of my clean up crew i didnt think he would eat them but i was wrong, i thought because he was a fang tooth eel and a smaller size he wouldnt eat them :/

 

[SALTY 75]

The head shake is when he's trying to smells something in the water. It's a food sensing action. My Dwarf golden does it all the time when he's hungry.

Ok, so is it like a quick twitch? i have heard it can be from flukes and stuff?

 

[SALTY 75]

Avoid feeding it anything that came from freshwater. The fatty acids are different in FW fish and the Eel can't digest them.

Also - Eels are opportunistic feeders. They really don't need to be fed more than once or maybe twice a week IME. Hannbal's food consisted of 2 or 3 palm sized filets of whatever Kroger had that was about to go out of it's "best if sold by" date. I got to know the people there and they would save me stuff that otherwise would have been tossed.

Here he is when he was just a little guy - still under the 3' mark. The cleaner shrimp were the only long-term tank mates he would tolerate. They'd crawl right into his mouth and out his gill holes picking at tidbits.

yes i have only fed him saltwater animals, but i have been wondering what i should use to soak his food because not all of it has organs and bones in it and i dont want him to get nerve damage.

 

[SALTY 75]

 

[SALTY 75]

the lump is almost gone but his body still seems bloated maybe he is just full. right now he is acting pretty normal but this morning he was laying on his side in a weird bent position within his cave.

 

[Dom]

ok so i just put a little scallop juice in the tank to draw him out and he now has another lump in his belly that has the shape of another crab so maybe it is just after he eats a crab he acts weird because he is really full? and yeah the crabs were supposed to be part of my clean up crew i didnt think he would eat them but i was wrong, i thought because he was a fang tooth eel and a smaller size he wouldnt eat them :/

Ah... so the crabs it is eating are part of your clean up crew. It isn't that you are feeding it crab as part of its diet. Is this correct?

 

[SALTY 75]

Ah... so the crabs it is eating are part of your clean up crew. It isn't that you are feeding it crab as part of its diet. Is this correct?

yeah i added the crabs on tuesday, some emeralds and some red ones that look just like emeralds except red.

 

[SALTY 75]

Ah... so the crabs it is eating are part of your clean up crew. It isn't that you are feeding it crab as part of its diet. Is this correct?

i didnt intend for him to eat them but he did.

 

[Dom]

i didnt intend for him to eat them but he did.

Well... as I understand eels in general, they tend to be natural predators of life on the ocean bottom. Things such as crabs are fair game.

I would suggest researching what clean up crew members are compatible with Moray eels.

 

[Webslinger]

Ok, so is it like a quick twitch? i have heard it can be from flukes and stuff?

Normal... mine does it all the time.

 

[lion king]

I remember responding to you months ago with concerns over this eel. I also remember you having other tank issues, like temp. I don't remember getting an answer to his exposure to copper, either by you or an lfs that runs copper in their system. A twisting body has also been associated with a nutrient defiency, what is his diet, what are you feeding and how often?