Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I recently bought a yellow tail spiney eel and about two days later he was on his death bed. I fed it to my RES and it seemed like he was choking. I pulled the eel out of his mouth and gave him some shrimp. I was just wondering if he was actually choking or if he was eating weird or something.

Like a suprisingly high number of fish, spiney eels are actually spiney, for exactly the reason of not getting eaten by things like turtles.
-----
"The serpent crams itself with animal life that is often warm and vibrant, to prolong an existence in which we detect no joy and no emotion. It reveals the depth to which evolution can sink when it takes the downward path and strips animals to the irreducible minimum able to perpetuate a predatory life in its naked horror."
Alexander Skutch

Spiny eels are SPINY (thus the name) They can easily lodge in a predator's mouth or throat. Also -- I wouldn't feed dying animals to your turtle. Most the of the time it is nothing that can cross species and affect him but suppose but you never know the exact reason why the animal is dying. There is always a something other than disease that is the underlying reason (say some toxins of some sort that it may have somehow absorbed). SO if this fish was toxic you would be feeding those toxins to your turtle. Even if the chances of this are slim to none it is NEVER worth the risk.

I've actually seen my res choke before too... I fed it a goldfish... and she tried to swallow it whole. She was choking and spit it back out. I'm sure if humans can choke, turtles can also.