Zebra Eel Acting Very Strange.

What have you been feeding him and they become more active at night and that's how mine acts occasionally when hungry... It way be food also try garlic juice on the food
 
I agree with bluetrig. At night mine usually roams the aquarium to a certain degree. You may want to add more live rock to make him feel secure. As long as your water tests out fine I would not worry. Eels can go on substantial feeding strikes. Mine will usually eat two shrimps every 3 or 4 days. Double check your water
 
What have you been feeding him and they become more active at night and that's how mine acts occasionally when hungry... It way be food also try garlic juice on the food

I feed him squid, clams, and shrimp. What does the garlic do?

I agree with bluetrig. At night mine usually roams the aquarium to a certain degree. You may want to add more live rock to make him feel secure. As long as your water tests out fine I would not worry. Eels can go on substantial feeding strikes. Mine will usually eat two shrimps every 3 or 4 days. Double check your water

I did have more rock in there once apon a time, but I never seen the eel so I opened the tank up a little more. Its in my sump so I can just put it back. Also the eating aspect I'm not overly worried about. I just thought his breathing looked labored.
 
Now its just sitting there looking lathargic breathing real heavy. Anyone know what it might be. I don't know what it is or how to treat it. I know copper is no good for eels but will hypo salinity help, or is that no good for eels either?
 
Not sure what to tell you, other than it looks like a goner. It looks almost like something suffering from being poisoned.

Did you recently stir up your sand? Do a water change? Are all your other fish OK?
 
Not sure what to tell you, other than it looks like a goner. It looks almost like something suffering from being poisoned.

Did you recently stir up your sand? Do a water change? Are all your other fish OK?

All I did was a couple of water changes after I moved some LR around. It started right after I moved the rock around. The other 3 fish are fine, eating swimming, ect. Just the eel crashed out of nowhere.

Also nitrates are down to 40
 
Hmmm, are you sure you didnt set a rock on him accidently, even if just briefly, while moving rock around? Unless you are 100% sure where he is/was the entire time you were moving, it would be pretty easy to put a rock onto the eel and not even know about it.

You could have stirred up something that is staying low in the tank, in the rocks, so now the eel is the one effected because he is sticking his face in it whereas the other fish are swimming around and not getting the full effect. Not likely, but there is a possibility of that anyway.

If you made a major change, like moving rock, and right afterwards the eel started acting "funny" then I'd say something definitely happened there. Either physical damage to internal organs or else some "funk" was stirred up and poisoned him. Like I mentioned earlier, it looks like an animal that has been poisoned.

As far as humane ways to put them down, everyone has an opinion. I personally put my fish into a freezer bag and stick them in the freezer. They just slowly shut down, drop off to sleep and never wake up, that's the way I like to view it. Cold doesnt "hurt" and they are unconscious and then dead long before any body parts actually start to freeze.

Otherwise, you can put it in a bucket and drop in clove oil. A small amount basically stuns the fish (which is useful for when you need to calm a large fish for treatment) and a large amount will kill it.
 
Hmmm, are you sure you didnt set a rock on him accidently, even if just briefly, while moving rock around? Unless you are 100% sure where he is/was the entire time you were moving, it would be pretty easy to put a rock onto the eel and not even know about it.

You could have stirred up something that is staying low in the tank, in the rocks, so now the eel is the one effected because he is sticking his face in it whereas the other fish are swimming around and not getting the full effect. Not likely, but there is a possibility of that anyway.

If you made a major change, like moving rock, and right afterwards the eel started acting "funny" then I'd say something definitely happened there. Either physical damage to internal organs or else some "funk" was stirred up and poisoned him. Like I mentioned earlier, it looks like an animal that has been poisoned.

As far as humane ways to put them down, everyone has an opinion. I personally put my fish into a freezer bag and stick them in the freezer. They just slowly shut down, drop off to sleep and never wake up, that's the way I like to view it. Cold doesnt "hurt" and they are unconscious and then dead long before any body parts actually start to freeze.

Otherwise, you can put it in a bucket and drop in clove oil. A small amount basically stuns the fish (which is useful for when you need to calm a large fish for treatment) and a large amount will kill it.



If it was something like a rock fell on in or it was crushed for a second, whats the chances of it coming back or there is not chance. It was running in and out of the rock work while I was moving it so there is a chance of that. As far as poisoning I don't think thats very likely because Ive been messing with my rock work here and there the past month or so trying to find something I like.
 
Eels are tough, but like I say it looks like it's suffered some pretty major damage. If you did set a rock down on it, being soft bodied like they are and without much skeletal protection, you could have easily damaged some vital internal organ.

There isnt any real way to tell it's chances of coming back without some way to know 100% what the problem is. If it is internal damage, you would need to know what damage occured.
 
The person on RC that I have found is the most knowledgeable about eels is syrinx. You might contact him.
 
What happened with you eel? I have mine doing the same. Is like he ate something bad. He will die? he stopped eating 4 days ago and now is out of is place and sitting on his side on sand :(
 
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