# My Tanganyikan Eel is Really "Fat" - Is It Ill?



## KayBee (Oct 30, 2008)

Firstly - Hiya everyone, I am new to this forum, but you all seem nice..... so I thought I'd try to pick your brains about something that has been worrying me recently.

I have a lovely Tanganyikan Eel, I have owned it for about 2 and a half years, and I have had no problems with it. However in the past couple of months it has put on a lot of weight and I am at a loss to explain why. I am worried it may have some kind of disease as I don't think I am overfeeding. Below I have tried to give all the information you might require. Hope you can help!

*Tank size*: 4 ft long, about 128 litres (approx 25 imperial gallons)

*Contents*: 
1 x Tanganyikan eel owned for approx 2.5 years
2 x Cuckoo Catfish (Synodontis Multipunctata) owned for approx 2.5 years
1 x Bristlenose Plec owned for approx 10 months
1 x spotted Plec (I don't know the species) owned for approx 10 months
1 x Gourami owned for approx 1.5 years
2 x Ghost Black Knife Fish owned for 1 month

*Set up*:
The substrate is grainy sand, with bogwood and holey rocks - plenty of hidey holes. 7 green plants.
1 x external Eheim filter
1 x internal Fluval filter / heater
1 x air curtain
Water Temp = 26Celsius (57.6Fahrenheit)
I am testing the water this weekend and will post full results afterwards, but fish are happy.

*Symptoms*:
Eel is still swimming about reasonably happily, but belly is dragging it down a little. Does NOT appear listless. Scales and fins in good condition. Interested in food, as always - has the nickname 'the hoover'.
Eel used to swim a lot in the evening - doing figure of 8's around the tank - he does this very infrequently now.
Belly is distended - but not just defining the stomach, weight seems to be from behind its fins building up to the belly and rounding out there, ending at anus.Tail fin area normal. Definitely looks fat / bloated.
When I was away one weekend and back 2 days later than I should have been (therefore food had ran out) it was slimmer! - See feeding below.
Symptoms were there before I got my Knife fish.

*Feeding*:
Since I have had this fish I have fed it 1 block of frozen Mysis a day, with occasional treats of prawn pieces. It always liked scooting around the bottom of the tank and eating the catfish pellets too.
Since getting the Knife Fish I have increased food to 1.5 frozen blocks a day, every 3 days feeding frozen Bloodworm instead of Mysis.
I tried putting it on a diet for a week by only feeding 1 block a day, but it didn't seem to be having any effect and I felt guilty about starving my fish.

*Maintenance Schedule*:
Errr, water changes 2 weekly - about 20 - 25% of water, occaisional full clean outs.
New water always treated with 'tap safe' product.

*Photo*:
I shall go home and get a current one tonight and then post it up. 
I have an old photo - taken in March, when there was no bloating. Which I shall try to post for now.

I would appreciate any help on this topic as I am worried. My Eel has always been a lovely and most entertaining fish (ok so it'll eat anything small (baby Mollies for one), and uproots plants occasionally), but it is a beautiful fish and has given me much pleasure watching it over the years.

Many thanks for your help


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## KayBee (Oct 30, 2008)

Eel, as it was in March this year - not at all fat.


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## KayBee (Oct 30, 2008)

Eel on 29/09/08 - clearly getting fat.










Eel last night - very fat.

I really would appreciate help, as Eel is now unable to enter the bogwood from the side - it she is too fat. Plus she is seeming more listless now.

I am worried.


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## KayBee (Oct 30, 2008)

Hiya again - UPDATE!

Water test results showed the following:
pH = 7.2, nitrites = 0, GH and KH midrange, nitrates high (think i overdid it when cleaning the filter last time)

Eel was getting so fat she looked like she had eaten a woolly jumper despite me only feeding the whole tank on 1 mysis cube a day, but when I got home from work last Thursday she has shrank back to her original size!!! - a huge difference.

I assumed that she had cleared a blockage, or anyone of the theories below has been suggested:

1. she had a kidney problem and had been storing water....
2. she had been storing eggs, as there was no male, she hadn't laid them and was absorbing them back into her system.....
3. she had eggs and finally laid them......

Now I'm not sure I buy into the egg laying theories as I assume that as with most fish, egg production is a 'cheap' method of reproduction and so wouldn't have a long production period... though maybe she would store them until she was ready to lay??????

She is keeping more to her bogwood 'cave' which she shares with one of the cuckoo catfish, so maybe she is nesting... but surely she would know that the catfish would eat her eggs in a jiffy??

Anyway I am keeping an eye on her, she had more of a pot belly last night.......


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## KayBee (Oct 30, 2008)

Actually a friend of mine just suggested BLOAT.

I didn't know eels could get this..... now you chiclid owners might know the answer to this??


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## Heyguy74 (Aug 11, 2005)

High Nitrates are not a result of cleaning the filter. It actually means the opposite. The filter is doing its job well. Nitrates are the end result of the nitrogen cycle. If the Nitrates are high, you will need to do a water change to lower them. Check that your tap water insn't a souce of nitrates as well.

I doubt its bloat for the eel. Have you seen the eel poop? If not try putting it in a hospital tank with no substrate. If you see poop in a day or two its not an internal blockage. It may be egg bound.


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## KayBee (Oct 30, 2008)

I checked my tap water last night, it is high in nitrates, but not as high as my tank.

I don't think I've ever seen the eel poop. Good idea about the hospital tank, unfortunately my hospital tank is a bit small for my eel (its for normal sized fish), but i think I will call around my mates and see if anyone has anything I could use.

Can I ask - what would I do if the eel is egg bound?

Eel is much fatter now, seems she is doing the same thing again......


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## Heyguy74 (Aug 11, 2005)

You can try some epsom salts. They will act as a laxitive. I'm not sure how to help the eel from being egg bound.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

I'm sorry I didn't see this thread before!

Epsom salts will help with constipation and being egg bound, so that is the route I would take. You can add it at 1 cup per 100G of water, making sure you dissolve it in some tank water first.

If you want to (or need to) maintain the level in your tank for a bit, just replace the amount of salt applicable to the amount of water you remove with your water changes.


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## jpn8801 (Nov 4, 2008)

KayBee -

Why do you keep your tank SO COLD?

I Dunno what the other people keep there tank @, but MINE, 74F. I thought that was a happy medium  I have a Lemon spotted Pleco & 8/ 1.5"-2" kapampa Frontosa in my tank currently. 
I am about to add the eel 6-10" as well as 2 Leleupis 2" and 3 African Catfish 2.5".

Am I keeping the tank @ to high a terperature?


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## triscuit (May 6, 2005)

jpn8801 said:


> KayBee -
> 
> Why do you keep your tank SO COLD?
> 
> ...


That was a conversion error- 26 degrees C is somewhere around 78 degrees.

I keep my tanks somewhere between 73-79 degrees for my Tangs


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