Need advice..Missing Snowflake Eel

Richb5571 · Oct 17, 2022

Need advice. I have had a Snowflake Eel for 1.5 years. He has always been hand fed and healthy. I had a wrasse that was attacked by another wrasse (Klensinger)and didn't look good. I think my Eel might have finished him off. Now he has been missing for about 5 weeks. We have searched everywhere without taking everything out of the tank. So I have 2 questions.
1. Is it possible for an Eel to go months without eating and hide or hibernate in the rock?
2. If he is dead and decaying how much of an impact will it have on my parameters.
I tested Nitrites today and still at zero. Nitrates are 8 ppm and phosphates at .04 ppm.
Looking forward to your advice.

HankstankXXL750 · Oct 17, 2022

Richb5571 said:
Need advice. I have had a Snowflake Eel for 1.5 years. He has always been hand fed and healthy. I had a wrasse that was attacked by another wrasse (Klensinger)and didn't look good. I think my Eel might have finished him off. Now he has been missing for about 5 weeks. We have searched everywhere without taking everything out of the tank. So I have 2 questions.
1. Is it possible for an Eel to go months without eating and hide or hibernate in the rock?
2. If he is dead and decaying how much of an impact will it have on my parameters.
I tested Nitrites today and still at zero. Nitrates are 8 ppm and phosphates at .04 ppm.
Looking forward to your advice.

Yes I believe an eel can hide out for a long time after an extremely large meal. Unless you have an extremely good bio filter I would expect you to have an increase in nitrates etc as I would assume a year and a half old snowflake is pretty big.

Are you sure it didn’t get out of the tank?

Bj’s Reef · Oct 17, 2022

My snowflake eel disappeared for three weeks. Then one day he just swam up out of the rocks like nothing happened. That was three years ago. He hasn’t gone MIA since. So don’t be surprised if he just shows up one day.

Fish_Fry · Oct 17, 2022

Years ago a friend of mine was a curator in a restaurant that had about 20,000 gallons of tanks with a centrallized remote filter room.

A snowflake eel went missing, she assumed it died & was eaten. A couple months later (I don't recall how long, but it was a long time) she was dissambleing some plumping and she found it. It got trapped & apparently there was enough food flowing through to keep it fed.

Richb5571 · Oct 18, 2022

HankstankXXXL750 said:
Yes I believe an eel can hide out for a long time after an extremely large meal. Unless you have an extremely good bio filter I would expect you to have an increase in nitrates etc as I would assume a year and a half old snowflake is pretty big.

Are you sure it didn’t get out of the tank?

He is pretty big and the tank has a lid. I would think we would see him out or at the very least start to smell him if he happened to get out.

Richb5571 · Oct 18, 2022

Bj’s Reef said:
My snowflake eel disappeared for three weeks. Then one day he just swam up out of the rocks like nothing happened. That was three years ago. He hasn’t gone MIA since. So don’t be surprised if he just shows up one day.

I just really do not want to tear down my tank to try to find him under the rocks but I am also fearful that if he is dead then he will crash my tank if I don't find him.

Henrik · Oct 25, 2022

Did you end up finding him?

Richb5571 · Oct 25, 2022

Henrik said:
Did you end up finding him?

No, still MIA. I assume at this point he has died and wedged himself under my rock

Marie7 · Nov 19, 2022

Richb5571 said:
Need advice. I have had a Snowflake Eel for 1.5 years. He has always been hand fed and healthy. I had a wrasse that was attacked by another wrasse (Klensinger)and didn't look good. I think my Eel might have finished him off. Now he has been missing for about 5 weeks. We have searched everywhere without taking everything out of the tank. So I have 2 questions.
1. Is it possible for an Eel to go months without eating and hide or hibernate in the rock?
2. If he is dead and decaying how much of an impact will it have on my parameters.
I tested Nitrites today and still at zero. Nitrates are 8 ppm and phosphates at .04 ppm.
Looking forward to your advice.

Did u look around the floor or around your tank if it’s close to the wall, they are good swimmers and some times if the cover is not shut well they can jump, also I have the same issue and my eel will hide behind the tank on the area where my waters goes down to the sump, I discover this o r day that I was feeding my tank and she jumps from that area into the main tank. Look with a Mirror down