Help!!! Is my SF eel dead or does he just need more time in water after escaping???

[infraled]

Hi everyone, we unfortunately had a tragedy yesterday. We came home and I checked on the predator tank and there was NO SF eel inside. I was horrified to find him behind the tank.

Now I saw him at 11am, but we didn't get home until 8pm. I dug a hole in the yard and was ready to bury him when my wife came screaming outside to put him in water! We put some new saltwater in a tub and added him to it in hopes of reviving him.

He has not moved at ALL. The slime coat has been falling off, but I don't see any signs of decay, change of color, rigor mortis, and there is no smell. I hate to be graphic, but his body is very loose and moves easily....I don't know if this is normal for a dead eel or not.

I'm sorry my first post is so morbid, but I hate to keep him floating in water if he is just not going to "come back". At the time of posting this he has been in water for 8 hours. I read in some posts to wait 48 hours.....is that realistic?

 

[Dmorty217]

I imagine the eel is dead if it hasn't moved and is limp. You will know relatively soon if the eel is alive or not. Also if it hasn't moved in 12 hrs or so I would guess it didn't make it

 

[infraled]

Update: I got up this morning and there was a definite odor. I did everything I could at least but the poor guy didn't pull through. R.I.P. Jon Snowflake.

Sent from my Pixel 2 XL using Tapatalk

 

[natanitelite]

Sorry to hear that. What a bummer.

 

[Icewing726]

NOTE FOR ANYONE THAT STUMBLES ONTO THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Always try to put the eel back in the water. I was lucky enough years ago to hear about a petrified eel coming back from the dead and one day I came home to find my snowflake glued to the carpet in a coil. I picked him up and he was like a statue so I rinsed him under the tap (bad idea I know) and put him in the water and he started moving and lived on. Spread the word.

Very sorry for your loss btw, I know how bad it sucks.

 

[infraled]

We learn from our mistakes and it just hurts to have lost a friend like that. I have now personally cut acrylic sheets to cover every possible opening on my tank. I'm also going to be putting in a latch system on my lids that open for feeding to prevent them from being opened accidentally too.

I was too cavalier with my tank before and now learned a hard lesson.

Thanks again to everyone in here, great community here!