OMG !! MY poor ABN , he got stuck & he is hurt :(

addicted2fish

addicted2fish

" Can you come out to play ? "
Mar 19, 2008
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I went into my room, and looked into the tank I have a 29 set up in there its bare bottom and just has the zebra lace pair, and 3 potted plants, and a pc of driftwood & one lone adult male albino bristlenose pleco . Well I had fry last week, so I had a blue prefilter on the intake of the HOB filter,. well after the fry were moved into thier own tank, the prefilter fell, *( its the same thing as when you buy a internal fluval filter sponge) blue, round and with a small hole all the way threw the center and a plug' at the end, Anyway , this had fell and was on the bottom of the tank, I seen it, but had not bothered to take it out of the tank cause as of now, I wouldent need it till more fry are free swimming, well I looked in last night could NOT find my male ANYWHERE !! I knew he was in the tank, he usually stayed on the wood, or beside the heater, he was IN the small hole in the sponge, STUCK !! I just knew he was dead. I even seen little pcs' of his tail floating ......:( So I pulled it out and got a pair of scissers to open the sponge as I was doing that , he wiggled !! OMG ~ He is still alive !! I was in tears, frantic, WHAT do i do ?? well I got him out, put him in some warm tank water from the tank he was in. Then added a bubbler, I got online and searched !!!! *( he has a huge gash in his tail , half missing, and his face, OMG all his bristle's are gone, its like his face is half missing ,, so sad... I was in tears . ) SO I did a search . EVERYWHERE< here, TPT,planetcatfish,APC, Google, EVERYTHING !!! ALL I could find was some info in planet catfish about a catfish that had a half missing tail, I found ALL kinds of infections, and desease, But my boy was hurt, and I could NOT find a good sorce to tell me the BEST corse of action. Anyway , in the thread I read abotu the hurt catfish , the Guy asked people about thier veiws' on melafix, said it had saved his catfish . And BAM !! I remembered I won some melfix & primafix on a drawing on another site . So I got my pleco in a one gallon tea pitcher, filled it with water and hung in on the inside on the 20 gallon DD blacks tank, thier tank stays at 82" , I am HOPING' I am not sure weather he needs coler or warmer water, but for now he is in the pitcher, with a small pc of wood, A airstone, and 1ml of melafix every 12 hours, with 20-40% water changes, in between dosing. I havent put any salt in , not sure if I should mix it with the medicine. but reading the bottle it says to heal wounds, and tears. ETC. so for now, he is on 24 hr watch ... I hope he makes it, He will be cherished no matter what for this ordeal, and I have learn ALOT about what not to have in your pleco tank .

Now after MY BOOK ~ lol ~ does anyone have a storey that fits this, >? have you healed a pleco or pther fish not from a desease, but from severe wounds ? and what is the best corse of action ? what do you guys/gals think I should do now . I feel like I am doing the right thing, but reasurance, and knowledge always help. I will update his progress . **fingers crossed ** he gets better.
 
Poor guy!! The best thing you can do for him right now is lots of large water changes like probably 50% a day. I would put in him in a hospital tank, if you can (a 5gal I think would suffice). I would be afraid the angels might pick on him. DO NOT ADD SALT! Adding salt to the water of a wounded fish probably pretty much feels like if you would add salt to a paper cut! Salt wouldn't do anything beneficial. Melafix and or Pimafix is alright to add, but really just the frequent water changes is all you need/can do for him right now. Keep an eye on him though for signs of infection.
 
Super clean water! I had a cory with it's tail torn off to the nub. 3 weeks of 50-75% daily water changes and a calm hospital tank and it started to grow back. He is now back with all of his buddies and I can not tell which one it was. Of course if the damage is far enough the tail and bristles may not grow back, but super clean water will heal him and he should be fine....may not look the same but still fine.
 
thanxs all for your kind words and help . he is in a hospital tank' sorta, its a gallon tea pitcher and I have it hanging on the inisde on the tank for the heat' of the tank. I dont have a 5 gallon right now to convert . I need to get a 10 set up for this reason, and also quarenteen, but I put my marmokreb into the xtra one I had to have her babies she is berried, and I did not want her to have any distractions, so I gave her the whole tank . ~~ He is moving around. I havent seen him eat yet . I think the melafix might cause things to taste' funny, it does have a strong smell . I put in a slice of zuchini, just to see , *( ofcorse its his favorite) and I dont think he has took any bites yet .. I am leaving that with the small pc of wood, and the airston in the gallon jug with him, he is up on the side of the pitcher, just as if he was in a tank. I am hoping he will survive ! I dont care how diff he looks just as long as he lives ! I noticed today , I took a few pics, they are cloudy , as the melafix clouds up the water a little , but his mouth and front bristles look fine, its the top, all his bushy nose is gone. I really hope he can recover from this . Since thier is no filter other than the air stone just providing Oxygen, should I do the water changes with the tank water ? I could siphon out his water into a bucket, throw it out , then refil the pitcher with the tank water, so he doesent have to go threw any type of cycle. ? doesnt this sound right ? there are NO fish that can get to him, he is very isolated, yes his tank is inside the angels tank, but no sharing of water is involved. They cant get to him at all . And I dont think they mind at all, for today they laid another 500 +eggs on a leaf as I speak they are still running up laying and fertilzing . This is why I need to SELL this pair SO badly !! they are taking over ALL my tanks with the fry ! I have no more room !! LOL ~

I have them listed on aquabid, I may post them here as well in the marketplace. IDK . this is my DD black superveil proven parent raising pair . And I am having a hard time selling them, but I know its somthing I have to do . I cant raise any more fry, and I cant seperate the love birds ethier ... :) ~~

I am truly thankful I caught him alive, I know he is badly hurt, and I WILL do 50% water changes everyday , and use the melafix . I hope he can recover and get back into the 29 or maybye I will put him in the 75 . anyway ,. thank you for all your support, and again , if anyone has gone threw this, PLEASE tell me what you did , and what you think is best . thanxs everyone ! ~~~
 
I actually had something similar happen. One of my goldies got stuck inside of a decoration that I had in the tank (a tree trunk) I pushed him out from the bottom and he was in bad shape (all the scales on the left side of his face were rubbed off, tail was just shredded), thought for sure he wouldn't make it, he just kinda floated listlessly around the tank for a while. Moved him into a hospital tank (20gal) and did daily doses of melafix, and a medicated food to ward off any potential internal infections. It took a couple of months but he was right as rain. Tough tough little guy :) Just gotta keep up with the doses of melafix, and good clean water, and i'm sure your guy will make it!
 
I say put him back in the 29G where it will be much less stressful on him and do the water changes on the 29G. If he's free to go about his business like normal and eat, move and hide as he wishes, that combined with lots of clean water will do the healing trick in no time. I recently had a longfin female L144 get stuck in a breeding cave by lodging her head too tightly into the tiny narrow end of it. I knew she was in there, and there was already a batch of eggs from another female so I waited for spawning to be complete and for her to leave. Kept my eye on her and when a couple of hours had passed and she was still in the same spot in the cave, I realized something was really wrong. I touched her tail and she did not react. Now how to get her out? She's dead. I've got a batch of eggs in the cave. I don't have a spare cave so I don't want to break the cave to get her out. I pulled at her a little bit, just don't have the guts to yank on her. I didn't want body parts in my hands. I tried to unwedge her body carefully with a butter knife. Nothing. I'm running out of options now. So I scrape the eggs off the side of the cave and remove them, BN eggs are all stuck together in a heap so that was easy. Lifted the cave but kept it filled with water. Grabbed an extra container of tank water out of the tank. Passing by the kitchen I grab my glass brownie pan (like my tools so far? LOL!) I dump the extra water in the brownie pan and proceed to the garage with cave and brownie pan. I don't even want to hurt her dead body so I empty the cave of water into the brownie pan, lay it on the carpet I keep outside the garage door, and proceed to tap the entrance of the cave with a hammer until I crack it. I hold it over the brownie pan of water while I peel the cave pieces apart to let the body out.........and PLOP! She's alive! Bleeding, torn fins and who knows about any internal injuries. I put her back into the 75G tank. She didn't move from the same spot for 24 hours. Lots of fresh water and she was healed in just a couple of weeks.
 
Wow, Deb! That's an amazing tale of injury and recovery!! Good job!! Hang in there, Addicted.... I know of quite a few amazing cases of injury and recovery with keeping the water clean and pure. These guys have amazing recupertaive powers.
 
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