Snowflake Eel - Where are you ?

[JackRent]

I bought a Snowflake about ten days ago. The first ten minutes was awesome. Beautiful eel. Then he disappeared into my very porous Marshall Island rock and is nowhere to be seen. Will I ever see him again ? any suggestions for getting him to come out ?

[CrazyLionfish]

Are you sure he is in the rock? Can you see him?

If you can't see him check around and under the tank or in the sump, they can get out of teh tank easily and into a sump easily as welll

[techigirl78]

We had a lid on our tank when I got one and it managed to get out of a small hole. Found it a few weeks later about 10 feet away from the tank behind the couch.

If you haven't checked your tank at night, I'd suggest that also.

[MHannon]

I had a 12" blue and yellow ribbon eel. Had him for a few weeks, he was settled in and eating live ghost shrimp and frozen prawn. I came home from school and he was not in the tank. I checked under the tank and only saw a giant fuzz ball. I went to move the ball of dog hair that had collected under the tank and realized that it was not a fuzz ball at all. My eel had climbed out and all of the hair and lint had stuck to him. I pulled him out and he was not mooving, You could not even tell it was an eel, it looked like a fur cacoon. I thought for sure he was dead. I remembered reading that eels can survive a long time out of water. I siphoned water out of the tank and filled a 5 gallon buckett and added an air pump. I let him sit in there for about 15 minutes then I went to pick him up and the fuzzy cacoon of dog hair slid right off. I could now see that his gills were pumping and was still alive. After another 15 minutes he was circling the edges and I put him back in the tank. The next day I noticed that a 1/4" part of his tail was infected. It had no color. It was the very tip of the tail so I thought that mabey the lack of oxygen caused tissue dammage. Other than this he was fine and was eating. The next morning he was dead.

I guess if you find him on the floor, don't considder him a gonner yet.

[bbcorvette]

Eels are notorious for getting out of tanks, I saved mine a few times and had to find a full tank cover. Try feeding live rosies just to see if he'll come out.

[CrazyLionfish]

Yes, if you find him on the floor don't consider him a goner. I've heard of peoples who have been on the floor for a few hours and they put him back in and he shedds this flaky stuff (his slime coat hardening) and then after a few days they're back to normal. I guess their slime coat hardening is capable of allowing them to stay "wet" for a while.

[MHannon]

Did you find him?

[bpd964]

I would check around the floor. He might be there somewhere. And i agree with putting him in some salt water if you find him dried out. I had the same thing happen to me with my snowflake and a few snails..

[aquamaster66]

Check the toilet