Very Injured Snowflake

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Hello everyone,
The snowflake has made it through these past few days. His wounds are pretty bad but they do seem to be healing. It looks like some air got into his respiratory holes and that he may have air stuck in there, probably due to the air stone and his position. His upper portion is buoyant, to add to the problems. What can be done? I do not think it can resolve on its own. There is an equal sized injury on the other side as well. Thank you
@Humblefish @Jay Hemdal

The eye seems clearer and I don’t see any signs of an infection, but the wound edges still look raw to me, little evidence of healing.

I’m not sure I understand about the air being trapped, can you post a video?

Jay

 

[Aldebaran]

Good evening everyone,

I would like to share the progress of the seriously injured eel and also thank you all for your timely and efforts to help us.
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @littlefoxx
@MnFish1 @Slocke, sorry if I missed anyone.

Initially it looked like he lost his eye but today is the first day I can see it, though I’m sure he lost vision in the left eye.

The tessalatta has been off his food for a good while, I do not know why, he was an excellent eater and ate a good variety of foods, he probably got triggered when the other eel took the food, he’s hungry I’m sure.
He is not eating, whatever I offer.

Update pics,

 

[vetteguy53081]

Good evening everyone,

I would like to share the progress of the seriously injured eel and also thank you all for your timely and efforts to help us.
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @littlefoxx
@MnFish1 @Slocke, sorry if I missed anyone.

Initially it looked like he lost his eye but today is the first day I can see it, though I’m sure he lost vision in the left eye.

The tessalatta has been off his food for a good while, I do not know why, he was an excellent eater and ate a good variety of foods, he probably got triggered when the other eel took the food, he’s hungry I’m sure.
He is not eating, whatever I offer.

Update pics,

Eye is cloudy. Did you treat with suggested Kanaplex?
What is Nitrate level today? Not eating often associated with water quality.

 

[littlefoxx]

Good evening everyone,

I would like to share the progress of the seriously injured eel and also thank you all for your timely and efforts to help us.
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @littlefoxx
@MnFish1 @Slocke, sorry if I missed anyone.

Initially it looked like he lost his eye but today is the first day I can see it, though I’m sure he lost vision in the left eye.

The tessalatta has been off his food for a good while, I do not know why, he was an excellent eater and ate a good variety of foods, he probably got triggered when the other eel took the food, he’s hungry I’m sure.
He is not eating, whatever I offer.

Update pics,

Yay! What a tough cookie. He looks really good!

 

[Slocke]

Good evening everyone,

I would like to share the progress of the seriously injured eel and also thank you all for your timely and efforts to help us.
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @littlefoxx
@MnFish1 @Slocke, sorry if I missed anyone.

Initially it looked like he lost his eye but today is the first day I can see it, though I’m sure he lost vision in the left eye.

Great to hear

The tessalatta has been off his food for a good while, I do not know why, he was an excellent eater and ate a good variety of foods, he probably got triggered when the other eel took the food, he’s hungry I’m sure.
He is not eating, whatever I offer.

It’s normal for eels to not eat for a few weeks. They prefer to gorge and have slow metabolisms. Fresh seafood works best for me when my eels aren’t eating. They love salmon, squid, and shrimp.

But overall though I usually feed every week if one of my eels doesn’t eat for a month I’m not worried.

 

[Aldebaran]

Eye is cloudy. Did you treat with suggested Kanaplex?
What is Nitrate level today? Not eating often associated with water quality.

Yes I did treat with what you suggested. The eye is actually immaculate, it was not visible at all, I thought it was lost, it is an immense improvement. The tess is hungry and he comes for food, smells it and leaves. Nitrate is 25 with salifert.

 

[Aldebaran]

Great to hear

It’s normal for eels to not eat for a few weeks. They prefer to gorge and have slow metabolisms. Fresh seafood works best for me when my eels aren’t eating. They love salmon, squid, and shrimp.

But overall though I usually feed every week if one of my eels doesn’t eat for a month I’m not worried.

I did try fresh salmon and fresh squid, it’s been more than a month now. I’ll keep trying

 

[Aldebaran]

Yay! What a tough cookie. He looks really good!

Yes, I can’t believe it. Thank you

 

[vetteguy53081]

Yes I did treat with what you suggested. The eye is actually immaculate, it was not visible at all, I thought it was lost, it is an immense improvement. The tess is hungry and he comes for food, smells it and leaves. Nitrate is 25 with salifert.

See if you can get it down to 15. Often doing 3 gallon water changes daily will will help bring it down.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

Good evening everyone,

I would like to share the progress of the seriously injured eel and also thank you all for your timely and efforts to help us.
@Jay Hemdal @vetteguy53081 @littlefoxx
@MnFish1 @Slocke, sorry if I missed anyone.

Initially it looked like he lost his eye but today is the first day I can see it, though I’m sure he lost vision in the left eye.

The tessalatta has been off his food for a good while, I do not know why, he was an excellent eater and ate a good variety of foods, he probably got triggered when the other eel took the food, he’s hungry I’m sure.
He is not eating, whatever I offer.

Update pics,

Good to see!

I'm a little concerned because both eels are off their feed. That implies there could be a secondary issue related to both fish...of just a coincidence.

Also, there is still going to be a risk that the tesselata will bite the snowflake again in the future.

 

[Aldebaran]

Good to see!

I'm a little concerned because both eels are off their feed. That implies there could be a secondary issue related to both fish...of just a coincidence.

Also, there is still going to be a risk that the tesselata will bite the snowflake again in the future.

They are separated now. The snowflake was eating fine when they were together and the attack occurred

 

[HAAAAAAAA]

Oh my god, and i thought that my Tess did worse to my other eel, I guess that was not the case, i am glad that your eel was able to fight through it!

Incase if you don't use activated carbon i suggest that you use it if you don't have any tangs since there's a high chance of hlle (hole lateral line erosion) in tang's, but in the case of eel's it helps a lot, it worked for my Tessalata when he wasn't eating, the carbon usually works by removing toxins from the slime coat of eel's which can get accumulated due to the closed ecosystem, though, does nitrates really cause eel's not to eat? I haven't experienced that even when my nitrates were over 80 so I usually don't worry, it's been about a year and none of my eel's have ever gone through a hunger strike

 

[Debramb]

Youre welcome! I freaked out when I saw her, she came out of the shipping bag that way. But I was surprised how fast she healed! Keep us posted!

She’s beautiful

 

[littlefoxx]

She’s beautiful

Thank you! I love her. Very sweet eel, she likes pets on the head too!