I recently got an asian leaf fish, the first time I introduced live food for it, he extended his mouth out to catch the feeded fish, but now he seems to have problems retracting his jaw completely. I has been over a day now and he cant eat in this condition. Anyone ever come across this sort of thing before, please help.
help! leaf fish problem
- Thread starter greenbird52
- Start date
the leaf fish is probably two and a half inches the feeded fish are not more than an inch in overall length and skinny, I originally thought it caught one and was unable to close it's mouth but it didn't even catch one. I have seen it struggle to close it's mouth several times.
thats a crazy mishap. are you sure its physically stuck? I see my amazon leaf fish flare their mouths out and shake their bodies as a sign of "dominance" for lack of better words.
hmmm... for over a day... thats bizarre. Im sorry I wish I could help
hmmm... for over a day... thats bizarre. Im sorry I wish I could help
Leaf fish mouths are tube-shaped when extended. The architecture required to form such a mouth is fairly delicate and easily distorted. Trying to eat prey that's too large sometimes causes permanent damage to the mouth structures, but I don't think that's the case with your fish — unless the damage was done before you bought it. Fish with protrusible mouths often need to realign their jaws after capturing, or attempting to capture, prey. It looks like yawning. Your fish will either successfully realign its jaws on its own or not — there's nothing you can do to help. If it appears to not be able to do so, try feeding smaller prey items, perhaps newborn livebearers. Sometimes fish with damaged mouths will be able to eat smaller items; sometimes they can't manage even that. If after several days his jaws are still out of whack, and he's not able to take smaller prey, consider euthanasia before he starves.
Gar fish problem
This isn't really all that relevant to this thread...but I have a simular problem. I had 2 needle nose gar fish and one recently died. I honestly couldn't figure out what the problem was...there were no prior signs of distress and the water was perfect when i tested. None of the other fish in the tank were affected.
When I found the dead fish it looked as if it had actually split down the middle, from head to tail...there were some holes along the underside of the abdomen which may have been caused by my pleco picking at the dead fish, but through one of them i thought i could see a large feeder fish, undigested. I realized that we had recently fed them a batch of feeder fish, and after they ate the rest, one large-ish feeder minnow remained and when i had gone to bed that night it was the only fish left uneaten. I found the dead gar fish the next morning and the large feeder was also missing in action.
This may sound ridiculous but can a gar fish actually be killed by it's prey from within? It didn't look like it exactly choked on it..or couldn't get it down because it probably would then have been partially sticking out of its mouth? But I still cannot figure out why it died or how? Its very frustrating...please help!
My remaining gar fish has now become very lonely, it actually now almost seems intimidated by my bala sharks (4 inches maybe). The gars were both about 8 inches long when the one died, we'd had them a few months and they always swam side-by-side. It looked as if the remaining one was looking for his buddy after it died for a few days. Now it will not eat at all (has not eaten in over a week). Before they used to eat as many fish as they could, usually at least 5 each, once every 2 or 3 days. My gar hasn't eaten since the other died, although we have certainly given it the opportunity. I have made sure all the feeder minnows are the right size (not too big anymore)...and have left them swimming around for a couple days but it will now eat any of them. I'm really worried...i don't want it to die too! HELP!
This isn't really all that relevant to this thread...but I have a simular problem. I had 2 needle nose gar fish and one recently died. I honestly couldn't figure out what the problem was...there were no prior signs of distress and the water was perfect when i tested. None of the other fish in the tank were affected.
When I found the dead fish it looked as if it had actually split down the middle, from head to tail...there were some holes along the underside of the abdomen which may have been caused by my pleco picking at the dead fish, but through one of them i thought i could see a large feeder fish, undigested. I realized that we had recently fed them a batch of feeder fish, and after they ate the rest, one large-ish feeder minnow remained and when i had gone to bed that night it was the only fish left uneaten. I found the dead gar fish the next morning and the large feeder was also missing in action.
This may sound ridiculous but can a gar fish actually be killed by it's prey from within? It didn't look like it exactly choked on it..or couldn't get it down because it probably would then have been partially sticking out of its mouth? But I still cannot figure out why it died or how? Its very frustrating...please help!
My remaining gar fish has now become very lonely, it actually now almost seems intimidated by my bala sharks (4 inches maybe). The gars were both about 8 inches long when the one died, we'd had them a few months and they always swam side-by-side. It looked as if the remaining one was looking for his buddy after it died for a few days. Now it will not eat at all (has not eaten in over a week). Before they used to eat as many fish as they could, usually at least 5 each, once every 2 or 3 days. My gar hasn't eaten since the other died, although we have certainly given it the opportunity. I have made sure all the feeder minnows are the right size (not too big anymore)...and have left them swimming around for a couple days but it will now eat any of them. I'm really worried...i don't want it to die too! HELP!
Thanks for the info, it's been two days with no sign of improvment. The thought of killing such a magnificant animal for such a wierd injury really bums me out.
patoloco
De seguro no sabes lo que dice aqu
I had a amazon leafish die recently due to "I DON'T F****N KNOW". He was eating perfectly and behaving like always, just to be found dead in the bottom sunday night.