Tiger moray eel sick

asheton101a · Dec 3, 2024

I’ve had my tiger moray for about 8 months all has been great till this last week he stopped eating my thoughts were hunger strike as I’ve dealt with his pickyness in the past, the he stopped hiding sitting on the sandy bottom out in the open in daylight hours, someone told me to do a salt dip with marine salt so I prepared 1gallon:2Tbs of salt and dropped him in he took off swimming round and round the bucket and I grabbed him to check him out he had little 2 white spots on his lower body they rubbed right off in my hands then he stopped trying to escape and his head started to curl then his whole body so thinking fast I just dropped him back in his tank about 3 minutes passed of him not being able to control his movements and he started looking better, but since he has been sitting I. The shape of a circle with his neck up off the sand and his head facing the sand breathing extremely labored I’ve never had any issues beside him not wanting to eat water quality is the same as it allways has been tank gets weekly 40% changes it’s a 125 community tank any saltwater hobbyist that have moray eels or anybody with eel experience please help

asheton101a · Dec 3, 2024

Here is a YouTube short of him now

Jay Hemdal · Dec 4, 2024

asheton101a said:
I’ve had my tiger moray for about 8 months all has been great till this last week he stopped eating my thoughts were hunger strike as I’ve dealt with his pickyness in the past, the he stopped hiding sitting on the sandy bottom out in the open in daylight hours, someone told me to do a salt dip with marine salt so I prepared 1gallon:2Tbs of salt and dropped him in he took off swimming round and round the bucket and I grabbed him to check him out he had little 2 white spots on his lower body they rubbed right off in my hands then he stopped trying to escape and his head started to curl then his whole body so thinking fast I just dropped him back in his tank about 3 minutes passed of him not being able to control his movements and he started looking better, but since he has been sitting I. The shape of a circle with his neck up off the sand and his head facing the sand breathing extremely labored I’ve never had any issues beside him not wanting to eat water quality is the same as it allways has been tank gets weekly 40% changes it’s a 125 community tank any saltwater hobbyist that have moray eels or anybody with eel experience please help

Welcome to Reef2Reef!

The eel is breathing too fast. Can you give us the water chemistry data? Specifically, I need to know the temperature, pH and hardness. Does the tank have good aeration?

The saltwater dip isn't going to help, even if the issue is parasites, and as you found, handling these eels causes a lot of stress.

The jury is still out as to whether this species can truly be kept long term in freshwater. It does better in freshwater than the tile moray does (the more common one sold as a "freshwater" eel) but some people have reported long term problems keeping these in soft or acidic water. Adding sea salt to the tank would be a good solution for that, EXCEPT I see freshwater plants in the video, and of course that won't be good for them.

vetteguy53081 · Dec 4, 2024

asheton101a said:
Help my tiger moray eel is sick and I don’t know what to do he stopped eating about a week ago and today he stopped hiding I done some research and asked around to a few aquarium owners most had no clue one told me to give him a salt dip 1gallon:2TBP of salt I did that and he looked fine I pulled him out of the water and he started curling so I put him back in his tank and a few minutes he looked better the. He did but now there’s something definitely wrong with him whe won’t move and is in a hand sized circle head at his tail his neck is off the sand and his head is pointing at the sand his breathing is labored and he is disoriented I have no clue what to do please someone with eel treatments or just someone who is more experienced in tiger moray eels help below I’ll attach a YouTube short of his current state.

A salt dip will do nothing as eel is already in salt
First check your nitrate and verify Nitrate with a water sample to a store that does NOT use API tests
Assure filters are clean and running efficiently. How are you filtering your tank?
May have looked better due to fresh and clean water

asheton101a · Dec 4, 2024

vetteguy53081 said:
A salt dip will do nothing as eel is already in salt
First check your nitrate and verify Nitrate with a water sample to a store that does NOT use API tests
Assure filters are clean and running efficiently. How are you filtering your tank?
May have looked better due to fresh and clean water

It’s a 125 gallon heavy planted and plants growing out the top, monsteras philodendrons pothos ect… the tank is 6’ and there not even a inch” of space on the back top side of the tank for anymore plants I have 1000 gallon canister filter on the left and a 220 gallon canister filter on the right the small filter is right at 500 gph and the bigger is variable speed going up to 3000gph,, plus a 8” round bubble plate for airation, and a few fine grain air stone under the top plants. Now on to my eel I bought him from exotic fish guy who sells a ton of eels and know nothing about them I talked with him last night and he suggested I use M-blue, I’ve never encountered any issues with him till now he has been feeding on frozen shrimp human grade and maybe at most 5 rosey red minnows a month, and once a month he has his chance at ghost shrimp I’ll drop about 50 in for everyone to have a treat. But 95% of his diet is the frozen shrimp when I first got him I tried a lot of different things do to him being very picky and shrimp seemed to be his go to. I had no clue you needed to add additional supplements to his food I just found out last night I’ve ordered seldcon Kent Zoe and vita chem, after everything that happened last night I checked on him every few hours and he was in the same position till 4am he snapped out of and was moving around he looked normalish, the about 10am this morning he started producing a large amount of mucous slime all over his body sand was starting to stick to him pretty good, and he’s back to how he was last night. since then I’ve broke out a 20gallon and hospitalized him 70%of his tank water and the other 30%from tap with a size of prime. I dozed the water with B1 and now I’m just waiting to see if he’s gonna pull through. The change of tank definitely stressed him a little but he chilled out quick, and back to his current state not able to balance well and won’t move much. I’ve used api test kits and have constantly had issues out of them. I’m gonna do another test on both tanks

vetteguy53081 · Dec 4, 2024

asheton101a said:
It’s a 125 gallon heavy planted and plants growing out the top, monsteras philodendrons pothos ect… the tank is 6’ and there not even a inch” of space on the back top side of the tank for anymore plants I have 1000 gallon canister filter on the left and a 220 gallon canister filter on the right the small filter is right at 500 gph and the bigger is variable speed going up to 3000gph,, plus a 8” round bubble plate for airation, and a few fine grain air stone under the top plants. Now on to my eel I bought him from exotic fish guy who sells a ton of eels and know nothing about them I talked with him last night and he suggested I use M-blue, I’ve never encountered any issues with him till now he has been feeding on frozen shrimp human grade and maybe at most 5 rosey red minnows a month, and once a month he has his chance at ghost shrimp I’ll drop about 50 in for everyone to have a treat. But 95% of his diet is the frozen shrimp when I first got him I tried a lot of different things do to him being very picky and shrimp seemed to be his go to. I had no clue you needed to add additional supplements to his food I just found out last night I’ve ordered seldcon Kent Zoe and vita chem, after everything that happened last night I checked on him every few hours and he was in the same position till 4am he snapped out of and was moving around he looked normalish, the about 10am this morning he started producing a large amount of mucous slime all over his body sand was starting to stick to him pretty good, and he’s back to how he was last night. since then I’ve broke out a 20gallon and hospitalized him 70%of his tank water and the other 30%from tap with a size of prime. I dozed the water with B1 and now I’m just waiting to see if he’s gonna pull through. The change of tank definitely stressed him a little but he chilled out quick, and back to his current state not able to balance well and won’t move much. I’ve used api test kits and have constantly had issues out of them. I’m gonna do another test on both tanks

With the plants , I would check on Ph as plants can make the water acidic and also mentioned by Jay on PH and hardness

asheton101a · Dec 4, 2024

Update current condition-

Jay Hemdal · Dec 5, 2024

asheton101a said:
Update current condition-

Seems like a huge amount of mucus coming off of the fish. You don't happen to have a microscope do you? You need to look at some of that to ensure there isn't some protozoan in it....but it is probably bacterial, or just sterile mucus coming off of the fish from stress.

So it's in a different tank now? What is the ammonia and pH level of that water?