my Freshwater Moray eel is sick...

panter

Registered Member
Mar 17, 2005
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i have a Freshwater Moray Eel for 7 month....
until now he was eating 2 small fish for a week....
i dont know way but in the last week he stoped eating,
and started squirming, breathing heavily and look bad....
anyone know why???
p.s.
the water salinity is 1.007.
 
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Is the water dirty? What are the parameters? What tank size is he being kept in? What fish are with him in the tank?

It could also be that the fish you gave him to eat were diseased or sick and he got sick because of it. That's the problem with buying feeders.
 
the water is clean, i change 30% evry week.....
the tank size is 20 g...
he is alon in the tank...
and i dont know the parameters...
what can i do?
 
Isn't he kind of big for a 20 gallon? Don't really know morays though.
 
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He really should be in a 55 gallons tank.
 
I also agree that the tank is a little small, what I had sucess with when my Gymnothorax tile (do a google search) would stop eating was to fluxuate the salinity, I would raise it a little, then if that diddnt work raise it a little more and then lower it a little. Being as they travel from pure SW up into FW streams, so they are used to regular changes in salinity that mainly has to do with breeding, and I would assume that triggers some sort of feeding instinct. Anyway try slowly raising the SG a little and see if that doesnt help.

Good Luck.
 
Nice idea Seaman, only thing is I wouldn't go from PURE SW to PURE FW. I would go b/t SG of 1.003-1.018. Just my 2 cents.

But I really think its the feeder fish that have been the culprits of this sickness, give your eel some medications and hope for the best.
 
Oddball~ said:
Nice idea Seaman, only thing is I wouldn't go from PURE SW to PURE FW. I would go b/t SG of 1.003-1.018. Just my 2 cents.

But I really think its the feeder fish that have been the culprits of this sickness, give your eel some medications and hope for the best.

You're probbably right about the feeders but the whole labored breathing thing makes me think the SG need to go up a little, mine would do the whole stop eating thing like once every 6 months or so, and changing the SG would work for me. The moray should be pretty easy to get off live foods, I would suggest trying uncoocked peeled shrimp from the supermarket. Also try feeding him live crayfish everyso often, mine LOVED them, and they dont carry diseases that will affect fish like feeders will.

I was suggesting staying in the brackish range, just stating that in the wild they will go from FW to full SW. I found with my G. tile that he could take fairly large salinity swings without any signs of distress (I found this out due to my negligence) which makes sense too because one could potentially swim from SW up into pure FW in under a week given the right circumstances...I would still suggest making changes slowly though because I dont know how stressful it is on them.

All in all get that baby off feeders, and get him a nice big new home....best of luck!
 
Yeah, but .002 change in the SG per week isn't really recommended, but whatevers.
 
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