Eel acting weird...? need some insight

[pitt_prodigy]

My zebra started acting really weird today. He was out of his PVC hiding place most of the day and at times would start thrashing around wildly in the tank? I tested all my water params and everything checked great.

Ph- 8.1
nitrates - <10ppm
amonia - 0
nitrite - 0
alk - 8kdh
temp - 79
sg - 1.027

My sg is higher than usual... usually between 1.025-.026... but other than that nothing has changed... no new addition, etc. All my other stock is doing great.

He has no visible abraisions or wounds.... the cleaner shrimp is constantly picking at him so im no real worried about parisites or anthing else.

I did see that the cleaner shrimp had moulted again and its partial shell was behind my rockwork..... is it possible that he could be choking on the shell peices?? He hasnt really had an interest in food today and that is not typical of him at all... he is usually quite vicious when it comes to feeding. I think i'll get him some clams tommorrow since thats his favorite. I just cant seem to explain what is going on with him.... anyone seen anything like this before?

 

[stevebydac]

Have you added any medication to the tank? Have you cleaned the tank with household cleaning products (ex. Windex on the outside glass)? Has any foreign substance got into the tank somehow? While any fish can be affected by these things, eels are sometimes more sensitive. Have you been painting in the room?

Other than that, it could be anything. Watch him for signs of parasites, or any red streaks or bruises on his body. Note his breathing, is it normal? Is he eating normally?

While I don't think it is related, get your SG down -- slowly, to not harm the inverts -- a couple of notches. Let's eliminate that as a possibility.

 

[pitt_prodigy]

Thanks for the reply steve.... as far as the sg... im already on that.... i got the ro/di making fresh water right now. I tested everything again and got the same results so i have eliminated params as a problem. Fish, corals and anemone are all vibrant and healthy.

I dont add medications to my main tank, so thats out. I dont use windex or any other glass products.... i usually use a cloth towel and just buff until its clear. No painting or anything out of the ordinary going on in the house either.... not even running the sweeper for the past week.

I bought some fresh clams and put one on the feeding stick and he wasnt interested at all. I went in under the reef structure and bumped his nose with it and a few seconds later he went crazy again thrashing around wildly?!! I have no idea what going on with him. His breathing was elevated but that was right after he got done thrashing about....i grabbed him to make sure that he didnt bump into anything and pulled him out to give him a look for parasites of any kind.... and nothing. The cleaner shrimp is always pecking away at him too so that shouldnt be the case. BUT whats really weird though is when he is thrashing he looks like hes trying to get something off of him but there is nothing there? Slime coat is still there cause i can see the sand sticking to him in places (as it normally does) but nothing out of the ordinary. No abrasions or bruises... which is really surprising the way he beats around in there.... im really stumped.

I have Prime (denitrifier/slime coat protector/amonia eliminator) and i was thinking about adding some to my new water just for added protection for him... good idea or no?

I really appreciate you help... because im at a loss.. i have searched all my literature and cant find anything that describes his behaviour. I'll keep you posted.

 

[LisaD]

Sorry you are having problems. Mine has never acted like that. How long have you had him? Any chance he could have eaten something bad for him in fresh mollusks?

 

[pitt_prodigy]

Hi lisa... ive had him since the beginning of December and he's always been really good for me. Ate like a pig the first day i had him.... always came up to the glass to see what i was doing when i was fiddling around with the tank... and was just generally a very healthy critter. I dont know whats got into him lately... but i know he's not right. Im not really worried about him not eating as much as the thrashing around. So far i've seen him do it 4 times in two days. As i said above... i've tested everything and so far no dice.

He did eat 2 cubes of my frozen formula now that you mentioned it. Its a concoction of shrimp, clam, squid, and seaweed blended and then frozen into cubes. My fish love it... he also ate some prior to all this happening.... kinda inadvertently. He used to go crazy when the stuff hit the water (i think mostly due to the clam) and he ended up ripping the plastic feeder clip apart and stole it from the fish. That is the only thing besides the sg that i can think of that would be different than normal. I keep that stuff in a plastic tray in the freezer.... but its sealed and i cant foresee anything that could have happened to it to spoil it. And i know that he hasnt had any bad clams or even anything suspect since he started acting weird.

Luckily i have this weekend off so i can keep an eye on him. Hes not breathing heavy.... but hes out of his pvc hiding spot more than normal. I vacumed it out earlier today to see if there was some type of irritant in there but didnt come up with anything more than sand. I guess i'll just keep my fingers crossed and hope for the best.

 

[Reefcherie]

I placed a copy of this thread in the Fish Disease Treatment forum to get some more focus on it. Is that the only fish in the tank? If not, I assume the rest are acting fine since you didn't mention it.

Any chance you may be getting stray electrical current from a bad pump, heater or power head?

Best of luck w/ your eel.

Reefcherie
RC Moderator

 

[LisaD]

This is really a mystery. IME zebra morays are extremely hardy, and resistant to most fish diseases. Recently, I had a total wipeout in my 120 gallon tank, losing fish I had kept from over three to nearly eight years to an outbreak of amyloodinium. The only survivor was the zebra moray, which I've had about five years, still going strong...

When in doubt, I usually do lots of partial water changes...

 

[pitt_prodigy]

Reefcherie.... thanks for the placement... i REALLY appreciate it. I do have a powerhead in the tank for water movement. I typically used it to mix up salt water but i think im going to take your advice and yank it out just to see if that makes a difference. To answer your question...yes, my other stock is doing great. Im really at a loss here.

Lisa.... im sorry to hear about your 120g. That literally makes me sick just thinking about it. Im glad to hear that your zebra made it though. They are as you said.. very tough, which is why im scrambling to try to figure this out?

The good news.... is that he accepted a quarter sized piece of clam this morning. The bad news... 2 seconds after he had it down he started thrashing about again. Im happy that hes eating....even a little, but still feel horrible that there is something going on with him that i cant seem to place. I dropped sg to 1.026 yesterday and i think im gonna try to get it close to 1.025 today. Wish me luck. I'll keep you guys posted on progress.... and thanks again for the support.

 

[LisaD]

Lisa.... im sorry to hear about your 120g. That literally makes me sick just thinking about it.

thanks. it was quite a blow. the fish in that tank were my pride and joy. apparently it is still a "death tank". I thought enough time had passed to add a few other fish, they also got sick. I will QT the fish for my 210 gallon elsewhere...

I hope he makes it pitt. all I can think of is some kind of gut impaction, whether from some object he swallowed or from a parasite infection. but that's just speculation, and I'm not sure if you could treat something like that at home anyway...

 

[pitt_prodigy]

I took cheries advice and cut the juice to the rotating powerhead i had behind my reef just in case it was leaking some current. Theres just something about that PH that i dont trust... i was cheap and as i said i only used it for mixing saltwater before. I kinda threw it in as an afterthought just to get some movement in a dead spot in the back of the tank.

I got him to eat another clam.... this time no thrashing so i feel a little better. Im in the process of making about 32g of fresh ro/di saltwater which i intend to implement over the next week as you suggested.

I did some more digging and found a book i had by Purcell on "The keeping of Moray Eels in Aquariums" which went over numerous diseases and treatments. So far i cant find one that fits and i know that its not nitrogenous poisoning or pH shock. Anyway he has instructions step by step on performing a freshwater dip for 12mins. If he keeps eating and shows improvement over the next week i think i'll scrap that idea... but if he would continue to deteriorate in condition im prepared to dip him as a last resort before letting him die without trying.

I wish you the best on getting your 210g back in order. I guess this truly is a hobby of peaks and valleys.... sometimes your on top and other times you find your self bruised and battered at the bottom trying to figure out how you got there. If it makes you feel any better... your in good company.

 

[Triggerman1964]

Pitt
EELS are very tough and I wouldn't worry excessively about him.
Probably something he ingested.
Keep a close eye on him and keep us posted.
Mike

 

[pitt_prodigy]

Yeah ...triggerman1964... your right they are pretty tough. He's eating a little but hes still doing his thrashing around crap afterwards. Im replacing 5g of saltwater a day in the tank just as a precaution. I think im going to wait him out and see if he can battle off the problem on his own. If not....as i said before i already have a pH balanced freshwater dip for him as a last resort. I cant see and parasites on him... and his slime coat is good... so hopefully things will work themselves out on their own.

 

[stevebydac]

If he just snaps his head back and forth for 2-3 seconds, I wouldn't worry. I've seen many morays do that for whatever reason.

Just keep an eye on your water parameters and hopefully he will get over whatever it is. Hopefully he doesn't have something seriously wrong with him internally.

 

[pitt_prodigy]

Today is the first day i have not seen him do it. He's still not 100% back to his old cheery self yet..... but his condition is not deteriorating either. Im starting to wonder if he didnt munch down a piece of my skunk shrimps molted shell that i couldnt get to. Oh well.... whatever it is, im just going to keep replacing 5g of water a day for the next week as a safety measure. When all else fail.... mix up new water.

 

[Triggerman1964]

Great Husbandry Pitt.

 

[pitt_prodigy]

Thanks trig.... i try to do the best i can for my critters. Besides salts cheap and for what i paid for that RO/DI unit the girlfriend would be mighty p***ed if it sat around and collected dust.

By the way.... my Zeb made it another day without thrashing.... so things are looking better. He's been taking a little bit of food at a time so needless to say my blood pressure has gone down a few points. Hopefully he's on the path to a full recovery. Just wish i knew what caused the problem in the first place?

 

[stevebydac]

If the thrashing is suddenly going away, given your info, I'm guessing he was bothered by some sort of parasite, perhaps in his gills. Just a wild guess. Something was really annoying him, and now it is suddenly not anymore. Usually with a regular illness, the decline or improvement would be more gradual. Poisoning is a possibility, but you give no indication that was happening.

Cross your fingers. Looks like you may be in the clear!