Update on Eric the Eel

17 Mar 2024 | ~2 minute read

A couple days ago, I wrote about how my beautiful fire eel, Eric, managed to jump out of his tank. Here's an update...

I'll keep this brief, as I don't want to dwell on it too long, but I last left you saying that he was in a bad way and it wasn't looking good. But I was secretly hoping the little guy would pull through.

He didn't.

Over the course of the afternoon he started to deteriorate, and by the time I went to bed, he was just lying on his side, gasping. At this point I was pretty certain he wouldn't make it through the night.

The next morning I came down early to check on him and he was gone. I was expecting it, but it was still very upsetting.

The worst part of a dead fish is that you have to get them out of the tank as quick as possible, as they're obviously rotting and will effect the water quality. So heartlessly, I had to immediately scoop him out of the tank.

Saying goodbye

The whole family loved Eric. He was such a friendly and interesting fish to watch. There's this beautiful wisteria tree that we had in the garden of our old house, we put it in a pot when we moved and have been meaning to re-plant it ever since we moved.

So we dug a nice deep hole, put Eric in the bottom and re-planted the wisteria. Which is now called "The Eric Tree". Hopefully his body will feed the wisteria and every time it flowers, we will be able to remember our little mate, Eric.

I feel awful as it could have been avoided - I knew he was exploring the lid, I knew it was only a matter of time before he got out. But I never got around to buying some weights for the lid. I do now, but it's too late.

If you're a fellow fishkeeper and have a explorative, intelligent fish, like Eric, please don't be an idiot like me. Secure the lid, as losing such a fish is really, really shit.

Bye, Eric. We'll miss you, mate.

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