Eel's and ich?

Eels got gills so it could live in there. Just do a ttm on them with it in a critter cage


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IME with eels - and I have at least some (I kept a 4' Gymnothorax Undulatus for 25 years), can they get Ich? Sure. Any fish can. Being smooth skinned, however, they seem to be pretty resistant to it.

Over the years, Hannibal escaped several times. The first time I found him dry to the touch on the floor and figured he was done for, but when I touched him he opened his mouth, so I put him back in the tank and went to work. When I got home, he was swimming around the tank like nothing had happened. Although he ending up with a terrible bacterial/fungal infection, I never saw a single sign of Ich.

Despite my best efforts (eggcrate top weighed down by large chunks of rock) he got out a couple other times. Never once did I see Ich on him.

Take that for what it's worth - the experience of one aquarist with one eel, but it is my opinion that at the very least, they are more resistant than most other fishes.

hth
 
Anytime I can help I try.

He got his name because he ate everything I ever tried to keep with him except a softball sized hermit
 
One of ich's main sandbed hangouts tends to be the sand where an infested fish sleeps; somebody else inherits the spot, and them. Fish that habitually live next to the sandbed tend to have real thick slime, which probably evolved to deal with the sand, but also protects them from infestation. Tangs, eg, don't have a very good coat. Mandarins are gooey as jell-o and highly resistant to ich.

HOWEVER---our tanks aren't always as nice in alkalinity as the ocean is: low alk can play hob with the slime coat, which is one reason novice tanks have far more trouble than expert tanks. It's not 100%. I've seen mandys get ich in really bad tanks.

My answer is twofold: yes they can, and more than observing the TTM and other precautions with them, watch your alk. That's the belt-and-suspenders approach to assure you don't have problems.
 

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