Snowflake eel is in rough shape

[SlugSnorter]

Well, initial results show that somehow, my Nitrates are off the friggin charts, I'm redoing that because I honestly don't believe they're that high and I'm not experiencing a mass extinction... I just did a 33% water change a week ago, so I have no idea what's going on...

Ph: 8.1
Ammonia: .35
Nitrite: 0 (rock bottom... this concerns me)
Nitrate: >160 PPM (seriously, the vial went bright red in a minute. Redoing this currently)
Phosphate: 1-2
Calcium: 400

nitrite 0 is fine. what tests do you use? Snowflakes make a lot of waste, and eat messily. Thats why they are usually kept in fowlers.

 

[Pazernaker]

Question, you are using a canister filter. Generally they aren't as bad as everyone makes them out to be as long as they are maintained. How long do you go in between cleaning it? I know were more towards the ammonia did the damage and I get that, just trying to help you achieve long term success. Canisters can be nitrate bombs if they aren't maintained regularly.

Im very sorry for the loss of your eel. Im very attached to mine as well and its a huge kick in the nuts when you lose an animal like that.

Also, thanks for the eel regards. He was my favorite animal in my tank, even though he was an butt and knocked things over on accident from time to time. I'm heading to the store to buy another one.

Another side comment, I'm not dosing anything into the tank, is this something I should look into? I have a raspberry-pi monitoring Ph, temp, etc. and am looking into peristaltic pumps to handle dosing, but am currently not doing any of it. End goal for the tank is a reef/fish tank.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Well, initial results show that somehow, my Nitrates are off the friggin charts, I'm redoing that because I honestly don't believe they're that high and I'm not experiencing a mass extinction... I just did a 33% water change a week ago, so I have no idea what's going on...

Ph: 8.1
Ammonia: .35
Nitrite: 0 (rock bottom... this concerns me)
Nitrate: >160 PPM (seriously, the vial went bright red in a minute. Redoing this currently)
Phosphate: 1-2
Calcium: 400

did not see that ammonia at first. Something is amiss. SW creatures are very intolerant of ammonia, a healthy tank should have 0.01* ammonia at most

 

[Pazernaker]

nitrite 0 is fine. what tests do you use? Snowflakes make a lot of waste, and eat messily. Thats why they are usually kept in fowlers.

Just the standard API master kit, which I upgrade from time to time with additional tests. I use a more expensive digital tester for Ph and have added phosphate and calcium to my testing. Also test magnesium, but not as often as everything else.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Also, thanks for the eel regards. He was my favorite animal in my tank, even though he was an butt and knocked things over on accident from time to time. I'm heading to the store to buy another one.

Another side comment, I'm not dosing anything into the tank, is this something I should look into? I have a raspberry-pi monitoring Ph, temp, etc. and am looking into peristaltic pumps to handle dosing, but am currently not doing any of it. End goal for the tank is a reef/fish tank.

maybe wait on getting another eel, something seems to be amiss right now. Snowflakes are best in FOWLRs, not a great reef tank creature. They produce lots of waste and eat CUC.

Hear me out for a moment: Setup a separate moray eel tank, made specifically around the keeping of a snowflake. This can make moray keeping easier and less risky in many ways.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Just the standard API master kit, which I upgrade from time to time with additional tests. I use a more expensive digital tester for Ph and have added phosphate and calcium to my testing. Also test magnesium, but not as often as everything else.

I recommend Redsea or Sailfurt. API is known for being unreliable and giving false results.

 

[Pazernaker]

did not see that ammonia at first. Something is amiss. SW creatures are very intolerant of ammonia, a healthy tank should have 0.01* ammonia at most

What should I be doing to keep it down? Ever since I got the tank (which is a rescue tank that I did a full scrubbing of the sand), I've always registered ammonia to .1 PPM at it's lowest. I'm also running a protein skimmer.

 

[Pazernaker]

I recommend Redsea or Sailfurt. API is known for being unreliable and giving false results.

I'm really questioning everything I've tested with my API kit, the more I look into it...

 

[SlugSnorter]

What should I be doing to keep it down? Ever since I got the tank (which is a rescue tank that I did a full scrubbing of the sand), I've always registered ammonia to .1 PPM at it's lowest. I'm also running a protein skimmer.

could be API weirdness. Eels do make lots of waste though, they are messy and have lots of slime too.

 

[Pazernaker]

maybe wait on getting another eel, something seems to be amiss right now. Snowflakes are best in FOWLRs, not a great reef tank creature. They produce lots of waste and eat CUC.

Hear me out for a moment: Setup a separate moray eel tank, made specifically around the keeping of a snowflake. This can make moray keeping easier and less risky in many ways.

I may have to just give up on having an eel for the time being, then :/ I don't want to set up another 30-40 gallon tank just for an eel while I have this tank at less than a year old.

 

[Bucs20fan]

Personally I wouldnt ever run a canister on a fowler tank they are just too dirty. Im a budget sw guy. I have two tidal 110's on my 75 fowlr tank for two reasons, one they cheap, two they are super easy to clean and have lots of space for a HOB filter. My reef even runs off of a tidal 110. Canisters do a great job at trapping waste, thats what they are designed to do, but this waste is still in the water even if it is trapped, which is why canisters can be nutrient bombs. Lots of people run them successfully but I would recommend cleaning it every two weeks if you can find time.

 

[SlugSnorter]

I may have to just give up on having an eel for the time being, then :/ I don't want to set up another 30-40 gallon tank just for an eel while I have this tank at less than a year old.

Snowflakes are usually kept in 75gallons+ FOLWRS with pvc pipe caves and a verity of rocks placed in a way to best accommodate eels.

 

[Pazernaker]

Snowflakes are usually kept in 75gallons+ FOLWRS with pvc pipe caves and a verity of rocks placed in a way to best accommodate eels.

75 gallons? Everything I've read says 30-40 gallons, but I've had mine in my 60 gallon with tons of caves in the live rock. Definitely not building a 75 gallon tank to keep him in by himself.

 

[Pazernaker]

Personally I wouldnt ever run a canister on a fowler tank they are just too dirty. Im a budget sw guy. I have two tidal 110's on my 75 fowlr tank for two reasons, one they cheap, two they are super easy to clean and have lots of space for a HOB filter. My reef even runs off of a tidal 110. Canisters do a great job at trapping waste, thats what they are designed to do, but this waste is still in the water even if it is trapped, which is why canisters can be nutrient bombs. Lots of people run them successfully but I would recommend cleaning it every two weeks if you can find time.

I don't know the abbreviation for SW, nor do I know what a tidal 110 is. I only have experience with cartridge filters (only 3 months into this endeavor).

 

[Bucs20fan]

75 gallons is usually related to the higher amount of water to help dissipate the bio load of these animals. You CAN keep them in a smaller tank. People do it all the time. No judgement here. Just that the type of fish you have and any time you get into predators, they are almost all exclusively very dirty fish. You just need the filtration and proper rockwork and tank mates to make any tank work.

 

[vetteguy53081]

That’s not what I asked for. I grasp the cause of cloudy water.

My question is as to this assumption it removes iodine and trace minerals. That I’ve never heard of and doesn’t sound logical since carbon fuels denitrification which I’m not aware of removing iodine or trace elements.

BTW, that article is incorrect in my experience. I do not run a protein skimmer nor do I conduct any WC. I do however have a large biological filter that supposedly performs denitrification based on past experiments.

Do you have a source for NoPox removing iodine and trace elements? Only carbon I know of that is assumed of doing that is the carbon used in items like GAC which isn’t the same carbon we dose to promote heterotrophic denitrification.

I may but at work . Will check later

 

[Bucs20fan]

I don't know the abbreviation for SW, nor do I know what a tidal 110 is. I only have experience with cartridge filters (only 3 months into this endeavor).

SW = salt water, The tidal 110 is a hang on back= HOB filter. Its made by seachem.

 

[lion king]

Many report having inconsistencies with API test kits. Because no other fish were effected I'm a bit curiously of the high ammonia reading, if this was something to effect the eel so severely, it would at least show signs in some of the other fish. Eels are special creatures and some special considerations must be taken, if you care to get another eel, visit some of my threads in the predator forum, and read the one post I made here about the points that contribute to premature eel death. I am sorry for your loss, you seem to be a hobbyist that genuinely care about the welfare of your fish.

 

[SlugSnorter]

Many report having inconsistencies with API test kits. Because no other fish were effected I'm a bit curiously of the high ammonia reading, if this was something to effect the eel so severely, it would at least show signs in some of the other fish. Eels are special creatures and some special considerations must be taken, if you care to get another eel, visit some of my threads in the predator forum, and read the one post I made here about the points that contribute to premature eel death. I am sorry for your loss, you seem to be a hobbyist that genuinely care about the welfare of your fish.

+1 to this!

 

[GARRIGA]

Hey guys! Update time, sorry, it's been a really frantic 12 hours. First off, this has been one of my favorite discussions to follow on here, I just wish it wasn't because my eel was dying. Thank you everyone for all the help, but things are getting really weird again.

First and foremost, I'm using the standard API saltwater test kit with calcium and phosphate testing added. All tests are within 1 year of shelf life and I test the water about twice a week now running a log. Ammonia is usually lower than that .35, but my wife was feeding dry pellets and probably overfed while I was on a trip for 4-5 days. I figured the higher ammonia was her overfeeding my fish. She fed the eel on the schedule I gave her with tiny chunks of frozen shrimp. For those saying malnutrition, the shrimp isn't frozen brine, it's large grocery shrimps I keep a bag of, cut pieces off of, thaw out, then feed to him. One question I have is if she didn't thaw a shrimp chunk out completely and he ate one with a frozen core, could that lead to his death?

Regarding the fate of the eel, by the time I got home, he was dead. I felt around his throat to see if something was lodged in there, but couldn't find anything.

I'm questioning everything now, as I did a 21 gallon water change (20 gallons, then an extra gallon for what was thrown out of the protein skimmer when I cleaned it) and the Nitrate level went from turning bright red in less than a minute to almost 0 the day after I changed some water. No other fish in the tank are affected by whatever affected the eel and as a reminder to something I said earlier, he only started showing signs of not eating a day or two ago. His stomach was not impacted and I had a friend take a look at him to let me know what he thought the condition of the eel was and was told he was the proper weight/thickness for his age/length, so it wasn't underfeeding.

So now, I'm questioning my test kit, the use of chemiclean, and everything else in my tank...

I bought some activated charcoal (I believe it was seaclear brand) that was recommended by a LFS and a large mesh bag. Since I've been using the Magniflow 360 canister filter cartridge and the marine land brand charcoal pouches, I've never liked that they don't cover the entire shelf they sit on, so hopefully this gets better filtration? Other than that, I'm at a loss for what I should do other than just watch the tank and see what it does.

My snowflake was maintained in a canister without issues. Best filtration for removing particulates from the water and processing chemical filtration but everything needs to breakdown. Most aquariums properly filtered, as yours appears to be, will handle an overfeeding event quickly as to ammonia and nitrites but not nitrates as those take time to process even if you have denitrification as I do. Yet a sudden spike likely won't kill an eel.

As for whole shrimp, not sure those are consider nutritionally complete assuming fed those that have been cleaned. Guts are a good source of vitamins and other essentials.

I think at this point absent a necropsy there may never be an explanation for what happened. Would check test kit accuracy if ammonia was showing since that's nothing I've ever experienced post starting a cycle and part of a recent discussion where I don't recall others mentioning they did.

Fact other life wasn't impacted then I'd think this was isolated to the eel and could have been based on food. I once loss an anemone from grocery store whole shrimp and I had nothing else that pointed to it's demise. To this day I believe it could have been what I fed him because the reaction was the next day as it chucked up what was last fed then quickly perished. Nothing else tank wise was affected.