my eel looks ill

[Francis]

Hi,

You know how you just know something isn't right with your pets, well my spiney eel looks ill. He sometimes rests with his head on the floor and sometimes he even lies on his back! He hunts and feeds well though, he just looks a bit woozy.

TANK STATS:
NO3:25-50
NO2:0
GH:>10d
KH:3d
pH:6.4 I know its a bit low well to low.

There isn't any physical problems apart from he has a few minute white marks around his tail but I don't think its white spot. I don,t think the low pH can really kill the eel, I thought they were hardy towards water quality. I have tried to keep it up to 7. don,t eels need special medicine aswell.

Thanks for all your time,
Francis.

 

[Francis]

i don't know if this is something different but hes started to breathe heavily and cough badly.

Francis.

 

[WILDER]

The white mark around his tail does it look fluffy in appearance, to be honest it not sounding good, any salt like grains of salt on him

 

[CFC]

Try to look inside the eels gill flaps, do the rakers inside (the fleshy bits) look bright red? Eels like many of the truely bottom dwelling species are prone to picking up gill flukes which would cause the symptoms you are describing. If this is the case then a course of Sterazin or similar higher form parasite treating medication will soon have the problem sorted.

 

[Francis]

Hi,

I've done my research and followed the Q's you guys asked and it is gill flukes by the looks of things, probably in early stages because he still feeds well. I'm going to put him in a Formmalin bath but I don't know what that is, or i shall use a normal medicine and then an antibiotic. After i shall do a 50% water change. Then I will replace the sand/gravel because they have a large amount of rubbish although there are two filters. then I will do more water changes next week.
It said Gill Flukes are because of bad water conditions but i recently did a 50% water change and the stats i showed you are Ok aren't they?
To answer your Q's: Under the Gills are a bit red. And there are bits of what look to be salt but not much and the white spots are not fluffy.

Is this all a good plan?

Thanks for your much needed help,

Francis.

 

[WILDER]

Do you have salt like grains spots on the fish as that is whitespot, that invades the gills as well, once they are heavy breathing due to the parasites they have it bad and mostly they don't make it.

 

[CFC]

The best medication available here in the UK for gill flukes is Sterazin by Waterlife. Its quite a long course (around a week if i remember rightly) and is quite strong so be carefull not to over dose and use half the recomended dosage.

A dirty substrate is a haven for higher form parasites such as gill flukes which may lay dormant for months before infecting their host, regular (weekly) vacuming and cutting down on feeding will help to lessen this.

 

[WILDER]

Hope it isn't gill flukes as they are really hard to get rid of, i had to strip the tank down in the end.


http/www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/flukes.htm

 

[Francis]

Thanks again,

Francis.