Is this love???

jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
I finally figured out I can take better pictures with my phone than with my camera cuz I am having some serious buildup issues on my glass from the previous owner. Anyway, look at my two love birds, newly cured from leeches in my tank....Aren't they cute? It's Max and Anastasia....and they're in love.....
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
Here's a closeup of Max, he's about 3 1/2 feet long. So much fun to watch now that he's feeling better.
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
See how close they get together? They love hangin out together, and boy was I glad! My snowflake is only 12" long, so I was scared for her life at first, but Max LOVES her and is always laying close to her like he's protecting her.
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
Thanks!! No fighting over food yet, but I'm sure they will sometime!! I called my LFS where the snowflake eel was bought and he said he fed her krill and shrimp. I have tried shrimp and scallops so far. She still hasn't eaten, but is much much happier. I'm going to try to cut the shrimp into even smaller pieces tomorrow and see if I can get her to come out and eat. She looks great though, and my tesselatta is now swimming a lot. He had become pretty immobile from those nasty leeches they had hanging off of them. I will try to get a video of him eating, it's really cool to watch him. Now my only remaining problem is getting the build up off the inside of the glass. I never would've had him set it completely up had I known it was on there so well. It looked like it was just crusty saltwater maybe from the move, but come to find out it's not coming out. I posted about it under tips and techniques, so maybe someone will have a good idea. I'm thinking about doing a big water change for my next one, to the point where the water level is below the lines and see if I can't get it off with something that would be safe once the fresh water is put back in.
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
I found some medicine called Trifon that you can treat established tanks with as long as you have no crustaceans or corals. I was amazed with the stuff because after having literally hundreds of leeches on her, the very next morning they were all gone except for just a few on her tail. You use it weekly, so I will be doing a water change in a few days and then treating it again. That stuff rocks! Thank goodness I found a post that described the worms to a "T", because I was lost as to what they were and what to do about them. NOw, both eels are happy again!
 
myerst22

myerst22

Member
I would make sure your Tessy is very well fed. To me that Snowflakes days are numbered. I had a 4' Tessy years ago that was the most vicious fish I have ever seen. I believe there is someone on these forums that has pictures of 15" grouper and trigger being bit in half by a Tessy your size. Tessalatas are some sob's. Yours may be a P+++++ cat right now but when he changes, you won't be able to get your hand in the tank. Good luck with him. They are by far one of the most beautiful eels on the reef. Regards, Tim
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
Wow, that would be NUTS if my little Max (the tesselatta) turned into a psycho! I hope not, but will keep that in mind. He's so far very tame. I put my hand in the tank and he doesn't come out. Now, I won't get anywhere near the spot where his head happens to be, but I've gone in and rearranged rocks on the opposite side of the tank. So far, he and the snowflake are best buds. They snuggle up to each other's faces even. It freaked me out at first, but once I realized the tessa wasn't going to eat him, it became cute to me.
I'll let you know if things change, but for now, I'll make sure I keep feeding him plenty of food!....He's a pig so far! I bought fillets of tillapia, which is what the previous owner was feeding him. I cut them in half and he gobbles down the whole half! It's cool to watch.
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
I am pretty sure that the leeches came in on some live rock from my LFS. That's the only thing I can think of.... I bought about 35 pounds worth,and within a few days the leeches became an issue. At first I wasn't sure since the whole system was new, but after doing research, I learned that they're introduced to the tank a lot of times through LR.....stinking lfs!! I just treated the tank for the second time today. I noticed the SNE had a few on her tail again. If she comes out, I will try and snap a picture of them so all of you can see what they look like
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
Here are some pictures. If you look at the top of the SFE's body that string thing is the leech. Also, the one of her face if you look up by her nostrils you can see a dark spot. There are a few there again. Before the initial treatment, she had so many worms around her face that she looked like she was a werewolf. All you could see were her eyes and the inside of her mouth when she opened it, poor baby...I had to throw in a few of my tessy because he got jealous from me shooting the sfe and started swimming around all over the place....




 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
How horrible for the poor thing. It sucks that you couldn't have gotten a picture of them with all of those on there. You could have sold it for money to the National Inquirer with the title of something like "Man has Loch Ness Monster in fish tank at home". lol
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
No kidding! I tried over and over to get a picture with my camera, but the glass has some build up on the inside and my camera wouldn't focus. It wasn't until I already treated the tank that I realized I could take pictures from my phone without it being blurry.....bummer....you guys would've flipped out. I've never seen anything like it. She literally really did look like cousin it. I could've had the headline read "Rare breed of eel comes from breeding of Snowflake eel and Werewolf!!"
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
I wonder if you could just pull them off. I don't know how tame your eels are though. That prolly wouldn't kill them though. Maybe they would just crawl back on?
 
jcarroll

jcarroll

Member
Unfortunately, they just kept multiplying and multiplying! To pull them off it at her worst would've been like plucking my eyebrows after letting them go for 3 years!!!!! She would've had to just lay there for literally hours more than likely. If I had to guess, I would've guess her to have had over 100 of them around her face alone. Not to mention they went all the way down her body and had completely taken over her tail too! I'm hoping that after this treatment, I will have killed them all. If not, I'm going to do a water change and treat the tank again in another week. The bottle says you can do once a week. Hopefully though, this will take care of them. My SNE finally ate! She likes frozen shrimp. And today, I about freaked, I put in the tillapia for my tessy, and the snowflake eel grabbed it! She ducked real quick into the cave, which the food would not fit into, and then the tessa grabbed the other end of it. THEN, the SNE came out right up to the tessa's MOUTH! I thought for sure they were going to fight over it, but the tessa actually let her have it!!!!! I'm telling you.....they're IN LOVE
 
hlcroghan

hlcroghan

Active Member
That is awesome. I am sorry you are having such a hard time with those leeches. What nasty little things.
 
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