Snowflake eel dying help!

[JohnnyTJ09]

I got a snowflake eel a few months back and it has been very healthy. It was eating, swimming around the tank. I just saw it laying upside down on the sand and I thought it was dead. I went to net and it swam into a cave. It looks like it lost control of its head and it’s swimming very strange. It’s also barley moving and I tried to feed it but it had no reaction. It’s around 10inches long and in a 90g with plenty of live rocks.

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

Bump

 

[Soren]

Sorry, I can't help you, but maybe @ReefSquad or @Jay Hemdal can help.
#reefsquad

 

[TheDragonsReef]

What are your parameters?

 

[Saltyreef]

Read this thread. Good info here.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/snowflake-eel-dying.321828/

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

What are your parameters?

I don’t have any test kits atm but everything else in the tank is healthy, I’m going to do a water change today, hopefully it will help. The nitrate and phosphate might be up a little but other than that everything seems fine

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

Read this thread. Good info here.

https://www.reef2reef.com/threads/snowflake-eel-dying.321828/

The same exact thing is happening to mine, I guess it’s about to die.. any other possible incite?

 

[vetteguy53081]

Increase oxygen ASAP with airstone/pump and test the levels for : Ammonia, PH, salinity, temperature and nitrate.
Any swelling in the face, throat or body?
Any noticeable scars or injury on it?

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

Increase oxygen ASAP with airstone/pump and test the levels for : Ammonia, PH, salinity, temperature and nitrate.
Any swelling in the face, throat or body?
Any noticeable scars or injury on it?

Ok I’ll let my skimmer run without the top and. Salinity 1.026 temp 78 and the ammonia is definitely 0 cause everything is thriving. I’m going to do a water change. The eel doesn’t seem to be injured, although it’s kind of hard to tell

 

[Dolphins18]

Ok I’ll let my skimmer run without the top and. Salinity 1.026 temp 78 and the ammonia is definitely 0 cause everything is thriving. I’m going to do a water change. The eel doesn’t seem to be injured, although it’s kind of hard to tell

Look into the vitamin b that the other guy found some success with. It is one of the last posts on that linked thread.
Vitamin deficiency becomes very common in larger animals that eat the same single type of food for most of their lives.

 

[LgTas]

The thread posted above has some good info and a possible solution. Give it a read

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

Look into the vitamin b that the other guy found some success with. It is one of the last posts on that linked thread.
Vitamin deficiency becomes very common in larger animals that eat the same single type of food for most of their lives.

Ok I’ll see if the lfs has some

 

[vetteguy53081]

Ok I’ll let my skimmer run without the top and. Salinity 1.026 temp 78 and the ammonia is definitely 0 cause everything is thriving. I’m going to do a water change. The eel doesn’t seem to be injured, although it’s kind of hard to tell

Because everything is thriving does not signify zero as fish are more tolerant of ammonia levels than eels.
If you have kit for ammonia- best to assure you did not get a spike. If API kit. . . Notorious for false readings.

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

Because everything is thriving does not signify zero as fish are more tolerant of ammonia levels than eels.
If you have kit for ammonia- best to assure you did not get a spike. If API kit. . . Notorious for false readings.

I don’t have any test kits right now so I’m doing a water change, I’ll probably get some when I get the vitamin pills

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

I don’t have any test kits right now so I’m doing a water change, I’ll probably get some when I get the vitamin pills

Does anyone have any experience with dosing vitamins and what is best? I have a reef with plenty of corals and I don’t want to harm them. Any products or brands I should look at?

 

[Saltyreef]

Does anyone have any experience with dosing vitamins and what is best? I have a reef with plenty of corals and I don’t want to harm them. Any products or brands I should look at?

You can soak food in vitachem or selcon, but a mix of fresh seafood is usually the best diet for an eel.
I was sourcing fresh ocotopus, squid, crab clams and mussels when i had my snowflake so it never really developed any diet related issues.
Silversides are pretty lame when it comes to nutrition....

 

[lion king]

What have you been feeding him, as others eluded, nutrition can be a an issue. Also digestion, predatory fish needs to be tanks maintaining reef level mg. Other possible indicators could be previous copper or antibiotic treatment or other exposure to poisons such as tank cleaners or even cyanide. If this came on all of sudden without any warning at all, some type of poisoning may be the cause, and yes copper and antibiotics are poisons, especially damaging the liver of eels.

 

[JohnnyTJ09]

You can soak food in vitachem or selcon, but a mix of fresh seafood is usually the best diet for an eel.
I was sourcing fresh ocotopus, squid, crab clams and mussels when i had my snowflake so it never really developed any diet related issues.
Silversides are pretty lame when it comes to nutrition....

What have you been feeding him, as others eluded, nutrition can be a an issue. Also digestion, predatory fish needs to be tanks maintaining reef level mg. Other possible indicators could be previous copper or antibiotic treatment or other exposure to poisons such as tank cleaners or even cyanide. If this came on all of sudden without any warning at all, some type of poisoning may be the cause, and yes copper and antibiotics are poisons, especially damaging the liver of eels.

Unfortunately the eel past away last night before I could even start treatment. I’m not sure the cause of death was from dietary problems because I’ve only had it for just over a month and I’ve been feeding krill and a little bit of silverside and clam from respected fish food brands. But I don’t know what else could have killed it because this all started so suddenly.

 

[lion king]

Unfortunately the eel past away last night before I could even start treatment. I’m not sure the cause of death was from dietary problems because I’ve only had it for just over a month and I’ve been feeding krill and a little bit of silverside and clam from respected fish food brands. But I don’t know what else could have killed it because this all started so suddenly.

Nutritional issues usually take several months and there would be signs, like going off eating, attempting to eat and not following through, it wouldn't happen overnight. Unless they had been somewhere else in captivity for a while, most nutritional deaths happen around 1.5 to 3 years. If there were signs of twisting there could have been a blockage but the digestion issues from lack of mg usually take several months as well. The likely cause is what I call poisoning which includes exposure to copper, antibiotics, tank cleaners, cyanide and other chemicals they use to aid in collection. If your lfs runs copper in their system that is at least a contributing factors. Eels do not process meds like many other fish, and copper leads to a premature death; never ever get a eel from sources running copper.