Eels and Dust

[Duke4life]

Last night I had a nightmare scenario happen, and learned I'm not as prepared as what I thought I was :headwalls: :headwalls::headwalls:.

If anyone has seen my other thread Ive been using the hobby as a patient way to help me give up cigarettes. Thursday afternoon I walked into my local LFS and Low and behold they have a small juvenile chainlink eel. My wife ended up giving me the thumbs up so I purchased it, everything has been great until last night when something told me to just watch my tanks. Well as I'm watching the little guy finds a hole I did not even realize he could get himself through and gets out, not only does he get out but manages to squirm 5 feet across the floor and ends up into a vent before I could grab a bowl or net to get him with. I quickly removed the cover and was luckily able to feel him, I was able to grab him and took a small bite to the knuckle but was able to get him back into the aquarium just not my quarantine tank since I was half way across the room.

I was wondering how the dust could affect him as well as what it could do to my tank? He was covered no more than a minute and what can this do to him? Do I need to do anything special?

 

[Duke4life]

We all like updates right?

"Alcatraz" hasn't eaten yet but I have seen the lil guy move to different spots if I was near the tank like before, I'm hoping this is a good sign, I've also added another piece of pvc and will be keeping the tank lights off today, unless someone feels I should do differently.

I have spent all morning going over the QT he escaped from and my DT to where he currently is to fix any potential issues and did. Should I be looking for anything in particular?

 

[rssjsb]

How is the tank covered? They've got really tiny heads and (as you've learned) can squeeze through any space big enough to get their heads through. So you've just got to cover anything so that you've got no gaps bigger than about 1/4". You could use netting, but if you do, you should anchor it down with something that weighs more than the frames people ordinarily use. Just a pound or two so he can't nudge it out of the way. Maybe lower the water level a little.

As to the dust, it shouldn't affect anything in your QT as long as you don't spray things in there, like furniture polish, floor wax, or similar, that could land on the floor. If he looks ok, I would just watch your parameters.

 

[Duke4life]

Wasn't even an 1/8 inch

Wasn't even an 1/8 inch

How is the tank covered? They've got really tiny heads and (as you've learned) can squeeze through any space big enough to get their heads through. So you've just got to cover anything so that you've got no gaps bigger than about 1/4". You could use netting, but if you do, you should anchor it down with something that weighs more than the frames people ordinarily use. Just a pound or two so he can't nudge it out of the way. Maybe lower the water level a little.

As to the dust, it shouldn't affect anything in your QT as long as you don't spray things in there, like furniture polish, floor wax, or similar, that could land on the floor. If he looks ok, I would just watch your parameters.

The hole was barely an 1/8 inch :headwally:

No furniture polish or other chemicals used. Went to Lowes this morning and ended up getting a piece of "Sheerflow" for gutters, has small holes plus mesh covering. I drained a little water to get below overflow, applied a few dabs of Loctite to adhere surfaces, then applied zip ties up top for extra strength. Hope this works.

Alcatraz did take a nice piece of shrimp about 15 minutes ago, got a nice view of his body and it looks fine. So far so good.

 

[Kyuss]

Just saw this, doh. I wouldn't worry about the eel, they're as bulletproof as it comes, but good thing you saw it happen and where he ended up up heh. Years back I came home from work to my snowflake eel seemingly dried up behind the tank. He was literally stiff, but I've read some amazing recovery stories. So I put him in a bucket of saltwater and he ended up making a full recovery and was back to normal within a few days. Needless to say, my current tank is locked down, but even that doesn't always help.

When I first moved my chainlink to the DT, it took him all of 5 seconds to find the overflow and slip right between the teeth. He did that one more time before he just got too fat to even fit, although he stayed away from the overflow after the second time and sitting in the filter sock all night.