Abandoned Aquarium

[cresta]

Help! I work in an apartment complex and one of my residents moved out and left a beautiful saltwater aquarium. I has 2 eels, a yellow tang, and one other fish I haven't yet identified. I have no idea how to take care of them or the tank. The guy moved out over a week ago and I just discovered the fish yesterday. I fed them some food I found under the tank yesterday and again today. But I'm not sure it's the right food for them. It's a flake food and it said on the container it was ok for Tangs and the mystery fish seemed to like it. It just seems like the eels need something more hardy. Any suggestions? Also, I will have to move the aquarium from the abandoned apartment soon. What would be the easiest method to do this with the least amount of stress on the fish? It will be a short move. Just down the elevator from the 17th floor to the 3rd floor. Because the guy was in the process of being evicted all belongings left in the unit must be stored for 30 days. So it looks like I'll be taking care of the fish for now. Since I have very little experience with saltwater fish any advice would be greatly appreciated.
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[fishfreek]

Ouch. Man that really stinks.

If you look just below our top logo graphic you will see a link to an articles area. We have a nice article about how to move a freshwater aquarium. The moving process is basicly the same for a saltwater tank except its more important to keep as much water as possible.

Do you know how big the tank is? Just give us the dimentions in inches and we can tell you the gal capacity and also give you info on the weight that this thing will have. Remember water weighs 8lbs per gal and depending on what else is in the tank the tank itself could weight 15+lbs per gal.

The eels will prefer a more meaty meal. Raw seafood will be great for them. In not knowing the size of the eels its hard to suggest a proper meal for them but some raw shrimp should do great. If you can see the eels mouth try to not feed the eel anything that is larger than their mouth as eels do not chew so they have to be able to swallow it whole.

There might be some kind of long stick that you can use to feed the eel with or you might just have to drop the shrimp in the tank. The eel should respond fairly quick to haveing the food placed in the tank.

 

[Biggen]

I have got to give you a "high five" for taking this tank over for obviously some loser who has no respect for life.

Good luck with it and let us know if you need any help.

 

[fishsticks7]

Yeah that's real cool that you'd take care of the tank like that. Good job

 

[BillyZ]

I understand that because it's an apartment complex you want to be able to make the room available. But if it's possible to leave the tank in that room for the thirty days, you could be saving yourself a LOT of hassle.

What i would HATE to see happen, is for you to take a lot of your time and effort and become attached to the tank, just for this loser to stroll back in 28 days later and say he's ready to move his tank to his new appartment etc. Plus the second move for the fish won't be great for them either.

if letting the tank stay there until the holding period is over is not an option then deffinitly go with FishFreek's advice and DEFFINITLY post up as many questions as you need to here. Don't be afraid to PM someone if you need to.

Best of luck and.. why not through a post up over on the Salt Water - Identification forum to find out what the mystery fish is )

 

[beachbumin]

Good Luck Cresta! That is almost the exact same set of circumstances that I got into saltwater tanks, eel and all!! I found that my eel liked bait shrimp or any fresh seafood the best. I used to put a piece on a chopstick and wave it around in front of him to attract intrest. As far as moving goes I have found that saving as much of everything is the most important thing! Best of luck to you! 8)

 

[christopherkath]

Cresta- if you havent mooved the aquarium yet and you have to we used rubbermaid totes to move a 75 gal. aquarium and all went well, dont add fish to any totes with rocks in them though Sorry you got into this position, wish it would have happened to me though if you decide youd like to sell it let me know and if I cant tqake it I'm sure someone here would be happy to help. Best of luck -Chris-