Moray eel skin peeling (necrosis)

jae00719 · Sep 29, 2022

Hey, I’ve recently purchased a honeycomb moray eel and it somehow managed to escape the tank while I was asleep. I thought it was dead because it was so dried up, but came back to life right after I put it back into my tank.

I’ve done some research and found out that moray eels would remove their dried coating of slime and skin, which it did peel off a lot of dried slime after I put it back into the tank. Other than removing the dried skin and what seemed like a new layer of slime regenerating, the eel seemed to be alright. (I did a decent amount of water change and I also tried to feed it, but would not eat).

This is where I have an issue. It has been about four and a half days since this happened and the eel is beginning to show necrosis around certain areas of its body. It is weird because the eel was fine until today, when I found that it has skin issues. The reason behind this is because of the eel lacked oxygen and had been dried up (plus the bad water after it peeled off all the dried slime). I’ve also done some research and I found out pimafix and melafix would help with the skin peeling off. I am not sure what more I could do and if pimafix and melafix would help. The necrosis seems to be getting worse and I really hope for a quick recover before it is too late. I would like to ask the fish experts here for some good pieces of advice.

*the first video is the eel’s condition now and the second video was taken on Tuesday, a day after this incident had happened.

jae00719 · Sep 29, 2022

I didn’t know videos would not attach here. This is the condition right now after about four days since the incident.

And this was its condition on Tuesday which was a day after the incident.

Jay Hemdal · Sep 29, 2022

From the video, it isn't breathing deeply/rapidly, so hopefully its gills didn't get too dried out.

Pimafix and Melafix are tonics and are unlikely to help much in a serious case like this. If there is bacterial necrosis, a true antibiotic would be more helpful - Neoplex for example. Just something that is for broad spectrum gram negative aerobic bacteria.

Years ago, I had a small snowflake moray do the same thing. It grew its skin back with no treatment, but didn't start eating for 4 months. Over course, the cases likely differ in relative severity....

Jay

jae00719 · Sep 29, 2022

Jay Hemdal said:
From the video, it isn't breathing deeply/rapidly, so hopefully its gills didn't get too dried out.

Pimafix and Melafix are tonics and are unlikely to help much in a serious case like this. If there is bacterial necrosis, a true antibiotic would be more helpful - Neoplex for example. Just something that is for broad spectrum gram negative aerobic bacteria.

Years ago, I had a small snowflake moray do the same thing. It grew its skin back with no treatment, but didn't start eating for 4 months. Over course, the cases likely differ in relative severity....

Jay

Thank you for the advice. I will also consider using neoplex. I am sad that the moray would not be able to grow back its black patterns even if it grows back all the skin. All the area that the necrosis happened would probably just remain all white.