Snowflake eel

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uk.kat.uk

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Feb 8, 2018
Messages
20
Hi all

I hope you can advise me on my friends snowflake. He has not had him from being small but had him from a shop who took him because the previous owner by own admission was not looking after him and had massively over crowded tank.

My friend has had him about 6 months is in 390L tank and the only other things in the tank are two urchins to help with algae.

So far everything has been fine but recently he has started acting strange. In the evening he will swim round like crazy and in the end he goes all stiff like he is having a seizure or stroke or something. Its scary to watch and the seizure only last for about a minute and after he goes back to normal.

I am not talking about the head twitching thing but a full on body stiff for several seconds. By the way I dont know the water test results but know they are ok cause the local chop checks them and there is a weekly 15% -20% water change.

Does anyone know what this could be plz?

Thanks
 
He could be freaking out from being in a new tank he isn't used to or he doesn't like quick movement around the tank. I got a spaz for an Angelfish in an established tank and if you approach the tank to fast he fly's around the tank then acts paralyzed in a corner for like 5 minutes.
 
He has been im the tank 6 months and this is new behavior. He normally likes people and follows yout fingers on the glass he is pretty sociable normally for a fish that is.
 
How old is the guy?

Erratic swimming and behavior can be caused from water quality issues or parasites. Hard to say what specifically is going on with him at this point or from what you described.
 
There are no algae issues anymore there
Was an outbrake about 2 months ago but now fully under control. now algea needs to be added cause there is not enough to sustain the urchens full time. As for his age no idea but he looks fully grown. By the way his name is Elvis. Named by previous owner. We were told he was in 2ft by 2 ft tank with about 6 other latrge fish some as large as your hand, so massively over crowded. And the guy did not bother changing water too often. They all made it through and my friend took Elvis. He has been fine for a few months until this started.
 
Dont know. He takes his samples weekly to the shop to have them tested. Only know the the guy at the shop said all was within healthy range. My friend (the tank owner) knows what they should be and agreed with the guy but I dont know sorry.
 
I usually say to take those tests and throw them into the trash. They are usually cheap inaccurate tests or a store trying to make money.
I'd recommend using some liquid test kits to check the parameters...or you can just skip that step and do large water changes with ro/di water on top of the weekly 10% water changes to lower or even stabilize the parameters in the system.
 
The tests are good. They use liquid tests a proper brand. They do it infront of you using the propper colour charts too and the levels may not always be ok but they have been lately.

Also mt friend makes his own water and therefore can do larger water changes 15-20% if needed. Pretty sure its bot the water. We think he may be old possibly 5 and a half by what they guy in the shop told us yesterday. Maybe its just old age related.
 
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