Sadly, my fire eel (Kraken) died yesterday 
and I want to try and make some sense of what happened because eventually I would like to keep another fire eel.
My Tank:
75 gal acrylic dimensions 48"Lx15"Wx24"H
Filter: Rena filstar XP3
Heater: Aqueon 300W - I keep my tank at 80F
Substrate: pool filter sand
Decor: large piece of driftwood, slate rocks, fake plants and some real plants (anubias and java fern) and an air pump (rena air 400) with 2 lines going in the tank.
Tank has been set-up a little under 2 years but I recently (2 months ago)moved apartments.
PWC schedule: 30 to 50% every other week and "full cleanup" (meaning I take the drifwood and some of the fake plants out to do a good vacuum, scrape the algae out and stir the sand) once a month or so. I clean the filter as needed but never at the same time as a "full cleanup" and by clean the filter I mean, clean the impeller, squeeze the crud out of the sponges that do the mechanical filtering and leave the ceramic pieces that house most of the bio filter alone - I soak those on old tank water while I clean the rest of the filter)
Fish:
- 2 red tail tinfoil barbs
- 1 giant danio
- 2 tiger barbs
- 2 spotted leaf fish (leopard ctenopoma)
- 2 bristlenose plecos (1 albino and 1 regular)
- 1 raphael catfish
- 3 peacock eels
- "1 fire eel about 15inch" (no longer there
)
I know I am overstocked and that my set-up is non ideal. Tinfoil barbs are too big for my tank and should be kept in a school of 5, danio and tiger barbs should have bigger schools too. Also, the tank is bottom dweller heavy. So yes it is non-ideal. How I ended up with those fish is kinda a long story but in some ways the same old story, in short I listened to the advice of the people from the petstore when I first started with the hobby (3 years ago) and well...you know the rest.
On to the eel........
This was definitely my favorite fish of all, it had a PVC pipe inside a slate rock "cave" and would come out and greet me anytime I was close to the tank. It's diet consisted of raw shrimp (hand-fed) and california blackworms, occasionally ghost shrimp. I have had Kraken for a little under 2 years.
Last saturday night everything was normal, I fed Kraken like I usually do (I feed every other day). Sunday night I notice some discoloration on its belly and to one side - the dark brown color was turning brown with some beige (I am posting a pic but it's hard to tell because I dont have a recent pic to compare to). Also it was swimming around, but it seemed more lethargic than usual and it wouldnt take food offered (which is pretty rare for "her", I think I had a female but it is hard to tell with fire eels)
I immediately tested the water and it was:
Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 30ppm, pH 7.6, temp 80F
Nitrates were a little high because I was a little over my 2 weeks (2.5 weeks).
A little tank history: I had Ick about a month and a half ago and lost some tiger barbs, some of them during a PWC, so I was hesitant on doing a PWC at that time (I now wish I had). Back then I treated the Ick with Kordon Ick attach and pimafix/melafix combo as a preventive measure. I thought that the discoloration was a fungal infection (I know spiny eels are prone to these if they get scraped) so I treated the tank with pimafix/melafix (this was midnight) and decided to wait until the following morning and see how it responded to the meds to do the PWC. 7am next morning....dead eel.
The night before the eel was the only one showing any symptoms but in the morning all the other fish were showing signs of lack of oxygen (gasping at the surface, gulping air) so I do an immediate water change (I did 2 consecutive 50% PWCs) and luckily all the other fish recovered (including one of the tinfoil barb which was upside down gasping at the surface, I thought that one was a goner for sure).
Anyhow, here are my questions:
1) I read that fire eels are pretty tolerant to lack of oxygen and that tinfoil barbs are very sensitive to it, so if hypoxia was what caused everything why was the eel the only one showing symptoms?
2) Is it possible that something else killed the eel and that the decomposing body of the eel caused the oxygen crash overnight? I don't know that it would decompose that fast but it was a fairly big eel
3) My new rule: PWC whenever I notice anything amiss with the fish. Any reason that you can think of not to do this?
4) Any thoughts on what happened?
5) From now on, I will be making weekly 25-35% PWCs and I am starting a new thread for advice on making some changes to stocking in my tank. Any other advice besides that on how to prevent this from happening again?
A final comment: I know I am overstocked, but I have a pretty good filter and on a day to day basis the tank is fine (no ammonia or nitrites). However. I do think that whatever went wrong was compounded by the overstocking. meaning that my stocking level gives me a lot less "reaction time". That is why I am planning on making some changes and I will not even think about getting abother fire eel until I do so.
Thanks for helping!
-Ximena
and I want to try and make some sense of what happened because eventually I would like to keep another fire eel.My Tank:
75 gal acrylic dimensions 48"Lx15"Wx24"H
Filter: Rena filstar XP3
Heater: Aqueon 300W - I keep my tank at 80F
Substrate: pool filter sand
Decor: large piece of driftwood, slate rocks, fake plants and some real plants (anubias and java fern) and an air pump (rena air 400) with 2 lines going in the tank.
Tank has been set-up a little under 2 years but I recently (2 months ago)moved apartments.
PWC schedule: 30 to 50% every other week and "full cleanup" (meaning I take the drifwood and some of the fake plants out to do a good vacuum, scrape the algae out and stir the sand) once a month or so. I clean the filter as needed but never at the same time as a "full cleanup" and by clean the filter I mean, clean the impeller, squeeze the crud out of the sponges that do the mechanical filtering and leave the ceramic pieces that house most of the bio filter alone - I soak those on old tank water while I clean the rest of the filter)
Fish:
- 2 red tail tinfoil barbs
- 1 giant danio
- 2 tiger barbs
- 2 spotted leaf fish (leopard ctenopoma)
- 2 bristlenose plecos (1 albino and 1 regular)
- 1 raphael catfish
- 3 peacock eels
- "1 fire eel about 15inch" (no longer there
)I know I am overstocked and that my set-up is non ideal. Tinfoil barbs are too big for my tank and should be kept in a school of 5, danio and tiger barbs should have bigger schools too. Also, the tank is bottom dweller heavy. So yes it is non-ideal. How I ended up with those fish is kinda a long story but in some ways the same old story, in short I listened to the advice of the people from the petstore when I first started with the hobby (3 years ago) and well...you know the rest.
On to the eel........
This was definitely my favorite fish of all, it had a PVC pipe inside a slate rock "cave" and would come out and greet me anytime I was close to the tank. It's diet consisted of raw shrimp (hand-fed) and california blackworms, occasionally ghost shrimp. I have had Kraken for a little under 2 years.
Last saturday night everything was normal, I fed Kraken like I usually do (I feed every other day). Sunday night I notice some discoloration on its belly and to one side - the dark brown color was turning brown with some beige (I am posting a pic but it's hard to tell because I dont have a recent pic to compare to). Also it was swimming around, but it seemed more lethargic than usual and it wouldnt take food offered (which is pretty rare for "her", I think I had a female but it is hard to tell with fire eels)
I immediately tested the water and it was:
Ammonia 0, Nitrites 0, Nitrates 30ppm, pH 7.6, temp 80F
Nitrates were a little high because I was a little over my 2 weeks (2.5 weeks).
A little tank history: I had Ick about a month and a half ago and lost some tiger barbs, some of them during a PWC, so I was hesitant on doing a PWC at that time (I now wish I had). Back then I treated the Ick with Kordon Ick attach and pimafix/melafix combo as a preventive measure. I thought that the discoloration was a fungal infection (I know spiny eels are prone to these if they get scraped) so I treated the tank with pimafix/melafix (this was midnight) and decided to wait until the following morning and see how it responded to the meds to do the PWC. 7am next morning....dead eel.
The night before the eel was the only one showing any symptoms but in the morning all the other fish were showing signs of lack of oxygen (gasping at the surface, gulping air) so I do an immediate water change (I did 2 consecutive 50% PWCs) and luckily all the other fish recovered (including one of the tinfoil barb which was upside down gasping at the surface, I thought that one was a goner for sure).
Anyhow, here are my questions:
1) I read that fire eels are pretty tolerant to lack of oxygen and that tinfoil barbs are very sensitive to it, so if hypoxia was what caused everything why was the eel the only one showing symptoms?
2) Is it possible that something else killed the eel and that the decomposing body of the eel caused the oxygen crash overnight? I don't know that it would decompose that fast but it was a fairly big eel
3) My new rule: PWC whenever I notice anything amiss with the fish. Any reason that you can think of not to do this?
4) Any thoughts on what happened?
5) From now on, I will be making weekly 25-35% PWCs and I am starting a new thread for advice on making some changes to stocking in my tank. Any other advice besides that on how to prevent this from happening again?
A final comment: I know I am overstocked, but I have a pretty good filter and on a day to day basis the tank is fine (no ammonia or nitrites). However. I do think that whatever went wrong was compounded by the overstocking. meaning that my stocking level gives me a lot less "reaction time". That is why I am planning on making some changes and I will not even think about getting abother fire eel until I do so.
Thanks for helping!
-Ximena
