Blue eel lost his tail -

Last week I decided to remove all my Wrasse... I had a few of them along with a Harlequin Tusk and a Triger... They are now gone and back to my LFS.

But the night before I got rid of them, the XMas Wrasse ate the tail of my Blue eel..... he is about 24 inches long.... blue/black with yellow.... The end of his body, about 2 full inches is completely eaten off except for the tail bone which is sticking out... (pictured below). His bone is now getting hooked on things like my trees and stuff in the tank, I had to physically grab his tail bone and un-hook it from one of my sponge trees...

So my questions are.... will this poor things grow himself back? should we do something to help? is it in pain and should we help him die?

Any suggestions ?

 

here is the picture of the tail bone sticking out of my eel

 

my gess is hes probly in pain just like we woad be if are finger was munched off or sumthing and most likely this kind of thing happens in the wild so id say it will grow back

 

Can't see the tail growing back, as a large portion of it is missing and its not just a laceration of sorts. (However eels do have AMAZING regeneration abilities with the ability to regenerate a severed spinal cord over 4-6 weeks- something that only eels have been found to do). A full wound like that is an invitation to any other fish/invert to have a nice tasty snack.
I would also doubt very much that it was the wrasse who started nibbling at his tail. It was likely a physical injury, or the trigger, or some other fish mistook the tail for a large tasty worm or some other invert and took a bite and caused the damage.

So my thoughts are that if there is to be any possibility of the flesh healing over the spinal tip, some of it would have to be manually removed, or amputated per say. This would involve quite the lengthy process of quarantining the eel in a hospital tank for several weeks after the procedure- allowing for adequate healing time. I would also suggest some type of anesthetic. Tricaine is the most common anesthetic agent used for fish, and doses range from 40-50mg per litre of water. This agent does have a low pH and thus addition of some type of buffer would be best. Upon addition to the water, slowly titrate your dosing until you notice the fish loses its balance and becomes unresponsive. I would suggest removing the protruding spine to about 1/4" inwards of the remaining flesh, and then use some fine grade mono-filament nylon sutures to seal the flesh back up and allow it to begin healing. Once the surgery is complete, remove it from this water and put it into a good cycled hospital tank, dose rigorously with any standard SW antibiotics for 2+ weeks until the incision has healed. You may at that point decide to resedate your eel and remove the nylon sutures, or if you've done a fair enough job at suturing them- you can leave them in indefinitely- and should eventually deteriorate over a couple years.

Or..... you can call your local vet and see if they will do it for you- but they will likely have the same level of surgical experience with marine fish/inverts as you do.

Btw, heres a link for the Tricaine - Western Chemical - TRICAINE-S (MS 222)

and, if you dont know anyone who works at a hospital and can get their hands on some nylon sutures, you may want to look around on the internet for some- unfortunately you'll likely be buying in bulk as they dont typically sell small quantities of them. If you'd like, I can send you the surgical supplies if you give me your address, however the tricaine would have to be purchased by yourself.

Regardless, you have this option- or you may decide to euthanize it. It will get infected sooner or later if left as is.

 

well that is a lot of information, not something I am comfortable with doing though... I hate to say this but I am very "squemish" about doing something like that. I am going to take him to the LFS and see if they can do that procedure.

It's sad to look at him and my wife is upset about it.... so I need to get him to someplace fast.

Too bad your not closer, I would ship him to you if I thought he would make it..

Thanks,
Joe