Why did my Snowflake die?

[phoenixfla]

I have had my snowflake for about 6 months. He was about 16" long and was thriving. I would feed him about every third day and I would alternate squid and shrimp, I had tried other things and these seem to be his favorite.
I would feed him with tongs and he would swim up to the surface to take it.
Occasionally he would not want food for a week or so, and I have read this is pretty typical. However about a 3 weeks ago he refused to eat. I tried a few days later and he ate a little (maybe 1 or 2 pieces) then about a week later he ate about 1/2 his normal meal. This last week he has not eaten again.
Ocassionally he would regergatate (vomit) some or all of his meal, more so lately than before.
Yesterday my wife found him laying on the bottom on his side and his breathing was very labored. She removed him and put him in a quarentine tank and he died a few hours later.
I cant figure out why he dies. My ideas are: 1. he ate something he should not have such as a hermit in a shell and could not vomit it up. 2. he had some kind of illness. 3. I overfed him, but I thought that you are suspose to feed them as much as they want. He typically would only eat about every 3 days. 4. something I was feeding him was bad for him. I would feed him shrimp from the deli uncooked and cut into pieces and squid that I would buy frozen, cut up into pieces.
Any ideas? I would like to get another eel, but want to know why this one died first.

 

[reefeel]

I didn't know it was possible for a snowflake to die. It probably wasn't the shrimp or squid. He may have had an internal infection from the day you got him or he may have eaten something he shouldn't have. Are all of your parameters good? The only thing I am worried about was the labored breathing. Do you have a test kit for dissolved oxygen? Eels have really small gill openings so less oxygen will effect them first before other fish.

 

[phoenixfla]

Originally Posted by reefeel
I didn't know it was possible for a snowflake to die. It probably wasn't the shrimp or squid. He may have had an internal infection from the day you got him or he may have eaten something he shouldn't have. Are all of your parameters good? The only thing I am worried about was the labored breathing. Do you have a test kit for dissolved oxygen? Eels have really small gill openings so less oxygen will effect them first before other fish.

Thanks for thr reply. I do have a test kit for oxygen and have tested it in the past and it was reasonable.
I am thinking it possibly was some infection because he was a little "bloated" over the last few days.
I added a refugium about 6 weeks ago, but other than that I have not changed anything in my setup. My nitrates have been high, but if anything they were lower now than say a month or two ago.