Snowflake Eel

A PAIR of Helfrichi?????? I would cry. lol

 

Yeah hahaha he was pissed he didnt feed it for a week so the eel would wander out of its cave then he caught it threw it in a bucket and said some one come pick it up or its going to the lfs in the morning, long story short hes in my tank now gettin fat and happy haha

 

Well, it has been about a week since I've seen him last. Must still be hiding out....i don't think he is dead and I don't see him on the floor. My protein skimmer is acting normal too, so if he were dead I think it would be going nuts.

 

IT IS VERY HARD TO KILL A SNOWFLAKE EEL !!! Please don't try and prove me wrong though !

I have had my snowflake eel for a little over two years. I can relate to your story so please read:

This past April, my snowflake eel, Skully, started acting funny and would not eat... She had always been a very good eater, and would even eat the leftover pellets of food her tank mates would not finish, so I found this behavior especially strange. In April I went on vacation, so I assumed she was being shy and might have been angry at me for leaving her for a week... Maybe she didn't like the person who was feeding her? I couldnt figure it out

A month went by and still Skully was not eating, not coming out of her cave, NOTHING. One day in May, I picked her cave up and actually tried removing her from her rocks just to get her out (I thought maybe she was stuck) !!! She wasn't, just being stubborn.

I was at the point of giving up and honestly thought I was going to loose her... One day, I stumbled across something on the web that informed me of adding a calcium supplement to the tank. I thought, I have tried everything else, what could this hurt? I started adding the supplements during every water change and about once a week and Skully was back to herself in no time ! ;D

She has grown almost double in size since April (well over two feet) and is just as happy now as the day I brought her home.

DONT GIVE UP HOPE ON YOUR SNOWFLAKE EEL... They can be hard to read sometimes, and just plain finicky. I've read that they can hibernate for long periods of time, I thought maybe thats what mine was doing... but I now realize, much like people, she was just calcium deprived.

I would recommend adding calcium to your tank (although make sure you can, at the time I only had Skully and my Foxface in my tank). Yours will slowly come around

I'd also pick up some Hikari LARGE PELLET fish food... The pellets sink to the tank relatively fast, so if the eel is hungry enough he WILL eat. Don't ever force an animal to eat but have it available when it should be. While youre at the store pick up a small cave or rock, something the eel can hide in... sure rocks are great, put actually being able to put the whole body inside something will make the eel feel safe. A PVC pipe works as well

Also be aware that snowflake eels can handle rough water parameters but are NOT able to deal with most chemicals on the market... Any type of copper will KILL your eel. Check with the LFS and see if they had ANY chemicals in the tank when you bought him, it might be completely out of your control.

Another thing to take into consideration is the size of your eel. Many smaller snowflakes are damaged in shipping or simply cant handle the stress... Skully was about 10 inches and quit fat when I purchased her... I also purchased her from a REAL REEF DEALER... I see Petco having small ones ALL the time and I don't know how anyone could buy such a tiny creature and expect it to live ?! If it's as small as you say, I would recommend sectioning off a part of your tank for him with a simple divider, eels can be shy and scared of larger fish. I've even heard damsels can pick at snowflakes and kill them. You could even get a small 10 gallon tank and keep him in there.

(skully was in a 10 gallon for about 6 months before she got her own 55

I am sorry for the long post and I hope something I said gives you a little bit of hope. My snowflake eel is my baby, my child... If I could tuck her into bed at night I would. You added an amazing addition to your tank and I hope your eel pulls through and makes you as happy as mine has made me !

I will warn you your smaller fish WILL go missing when he gets a little larger :-X

 

I had one a long time ago what I did was buy scallops rinse freeze flat. Time to feed thaw in tank water had a pair of tank tongs would stick it in his face and jiggle he would strike and I would drag his azz around the tank he loved it and would eat all the time. Good luck really cool fish.

 

Wonderful info here people's! Thanks

 

Yeah snowflakes are hard as he'll to kill, we had one at my work that survived my old coworker bleaching the tank!!! Try took out all the fish and water started bleaching the tank then realized the eel was still in his cave, dag eel survived the whole ordeal even being outa water for an hour

 

Thanks for the info...and the life story j/k It is very good info.

I haven't seen him, but I am not that worried. My gobies had to find a new home so I am pretty sure I know where he is hiding. I won't be able to see him until he decides to come out, but where I suspect he is, is the last place I saw him go in.

His other tank mates are doing great and soon they will be moving to a much bigger aquarium....but that won't be for at least a few more months.

 

Update: I saw my eel today and was able to feed him some krill. He seemed pretty hungry, so I hope he got enough. He's pretty cool. I also found where he has been hiding. He has been sharing space with my zebra gobies...at least for now while they are bigger than him!

 

Hahaha yeah hopefully the realize that when he gets bigger they go from friends to food