Bloated eel throat

[Goodair]

Was feeding the tank today and the snowflake eel's throat seemed a little bloated. I'll try to get a picture next time it comes out but probally won't be till tommorow.
Is this normal or something to be concerned about?

 

[Han]

How does his poop look? If you’ve noticed

 

[lion king]

I have read about one sign of over feeding is fat settling around the neck area. What is your feeding routine; how much and what. Is is acting and looking normal otherwise.

 

[Goodair]

Treated for internals when I got it, haven't seen any poop since, so can't really say.
Eel has been acting the same for the last few months. Hides after food and has its head sticking out the next day.

Eats roughly around every 3 days, mix of shrimp, squid, used to eat silversides but shows no interest in the new batch. Food is soaked in vitamins and sometimes garlic while dethawing. I try to feed it ghost shrimp once a week if the lfs store has em in stock. Portions vary, I tend to feed it till it stops showing interest or I run out. Its roughly the size of a jumbo shrimp total.

The bloat isn't alarming, but have noticed it and just not much info online about it.

 

[lion king]

Yeah that doesn't sound like overfeeding. Overfeeding usually occurs by feeding too often vs a couple of good meals a week. Might just be normal, dudes got a fat neck, haha.

 

[Han]

Seems like every eel I’ve seen in a public aquarium has that fat neck look, must be an eel thing

 

[vetteguy53081]

While somewhat common, not normal with eels. Two possible things may be lack of iodine, in which eels require amounts of iodine in their diet along with their tank environment. check your iodine levels in your tank as you may need to supplement if your not doing so BUT be sure to test levels before dosing AS overdosing can be lethal.. . . but lack of iodine can cause goiter which is swelling of glands.
Other cause would be vitamin deficiency
and as long as the eel is still eating try adding a more complete vitamin mix like selcon or Vita-Chem to the food. If the situation gets worse you might be dealing with an infection, which could require a treatment with an antibiotic (such as maracyn or comparable which is best used in a hospital tank or QT tank.

 

[Goodair]

Vitamin-M from brightwell doesnt seem to contain iodine. Is there a fish thats high in iodine that I can mix into thier diet? The marine beta ate a piece of tuna a while back, didn't have a eel back then so not sure if he would try it, (next time ill cut some to the side and freeze some small pieces to try.) I do water changes every 2 weeks and the stocking is fairly small atm, so low iodine shouldn't be a issue but ill test just to make sure.

I'll keep an eye and grab a pic when given a chance to keep this updated for future use since there isn't all that much info and other people might might have the same question.

If it gets more bloated, I'll start looking into treating it.

 

[lion king]

I know shrimp and crustaens has a good amount if iodine. Iodine generally stays pretty stable in our tanks, unless you are housing alot of shrimp or crabs, but then with the snowflake.... You changing your water that often as well, I would be surprised if it was iodine defiencency. I would be careful with meds unless you are absolutely sure of what you are treating, eels seem not to handle meds almost as bad as lions.

 

[Goodair]

 

[Goodair]

Video looks to have problems, here is the clip on youtube.

 

[lion king]

As @Han stated maybe it's just an eel thing having a fat neck. His activity and response to feeding looked good. Honestly I would not take a shot in the dark and use an antibiotic or some other med. The internal damage of medicating will likely be more of risk than to let it ride. If you find a definitive answer with a successful course of action then that's another story.

 

[WVNed]

Mine came out to eat today and it looks the same as yours.