anaya;19014839
MrTuskfish: If that is the case how do I know when some other type of treatment is needed. Do you know of a site or source of eel fungal/bacterial infections pictures that I can compare to my eels ailment so I know what to treat for?
[/QUOTE said:
Sorry, no web site. This is more on my earlier "educated" guess. A fish's slime coat is a vital piece of its anatomy. It provides infection against infection and ever some parasites. Its especially important to scaleless fish. Every fisherman knows not to handle fish with dry hands if they are to be released. Same is true with fish in our tanks; handling with dry hands can be fatal in more extreme cases. I had a Harlequin Tusk jump out a while back after forgetting part of the tanks cover; Tusks, like most wrasse are serious jumpers. I even heard the splat in the bedroom. When I got there, he was being held down by my springer spaniel. I grabbed a towel, soaked it in tank water, and rushed him downstairs to my QT. I let him swim a few mins, then netted him and literally held the net away from the tank and covered him with a stress-guard type product that I keep in my fish med box. He went back to QT, so I could keep a good eye on him. He did develop a few whitish, blotchy areas, I assume from the slime coat being rubbed off by the dog & the flopping. A couple of these started to fester a few days later and I used an antibiotic. The blotches that didn't seem to get infected returned to normal color within days. Within a few weeks, he was entirely back to normal and is thriving, eating from my fingers with those big blue teeth. A long winded example, I know little about eels and yours could just have some stress induced coloration going on. This is fairly common, it happens a lot with yellow tangs and other fish. If these areas start to look infected or the eel doesn't resume normal activity within a few days; I'd consider QT and an antibiotic.
