Eel stuck in decoration

[flish]

Hi all,

My little fresh water eel seems to have gotten stuck in one of my decorations. For a while, I thought he/she was just hiding out in it and didn't think anything of it, but recently I've been watching the eel more closely and haven't seen it venture forth and look very strained when trying to reach food floating by. This was also confirmed when I did a deep clean the other day and the eel did not leave the hiding hole during or after I moved him around in it. The growth of my eel has also been stunted because of this, as the other eel I have in the tank has grown quite larger. They both used to swim around very actively. I attached a picture to show where the eel is hiding out and you can see the other eel in the corner.

Do you have any advice as to how I could get my eel out? The decoration is hard plastic so I'm worried about attempting to cut it or anything of that nature.

Thank you very much!

 

[fishliker]

Can you update? I hope you can try to get it out.


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[FishayFishay]

Wow man that's a tough situation, maybe you can try to take out the decoration and turn it so the eel's body is facing downwards. Maybe out of fear he will dart out or if not you can maybe use some tonsils and gently help him out? Best of luck to ya

 

[Mebbid]

I honestly doubt that its "stuck"

The eel hiding in the hidey hole during cleaning is doing what its supposed to do, hiding when its scared.


Try feeding it at night with a target feedimg. Itll be easier to see if you have some night lights on your tank. Also make sure that it cant see you.

 

[lksdrinker]

I honestly doubt that its "stuck"

The eel hiding in the hidey hole during cleaning is doing what its supposed to do, hiding when its scared.


Try feeding it at night with a target feedimg. Itll be easier to see if you have some night lights on your tank. Also make sure that it cant see you.

This sounds about right to me. I'd be truly amazed if a fish was able to fit into somewhere and be unable to get back out.