EMERGENCY - Needlenose Gar in trouble

Rocketman

Rocketman

Detroit; proud of it.
Oct 24, 2002
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Detroit, MI
Real Name
Reid
I was cleaning my tank today, just as I always do, when one of the glass hoods slid right into the water. I was siphoning with my Python at the time, and so I took a quick look and all the fish looked fine. A few minutes later, I took another look at the tank and saw my needlenose gar swimming as if he had no equiliberium. In the next few minutes - literally - it got much worse. He would try to right himself but overcompensate and end up spinning himself fully around. He was in a 45G with about 750 GPH of current, so I took him downstairs to an empty 10G with about 100GPH. He isn't doing much better, and now is almost limp, with his gills opening slowly although not gasping. I was thinkin of running out to work and picking up some of Aquatronics Oxygen tablets if he's still alive in a few minutes. I'm not sure if he was hit with the hood, although he was fine before, (and I was watching him for a good 20 minutes.)

Any help, (including opinions on the effectiveness of those Aquatronics Oxygen tablets, in the grey box, in general) would be greatly appreciated.
 
I had something similar happen with a rock that hit a fish. The fish was slightly physical deformed from the impact and acted very stunned. I treated with Melafix for a week and the fish has been fine now for over a year (although it has sort of a dent by its head).

Never had a gar but I would suggest the melafix. It works great with fin tears and such so it may be a good choice in this instance.

Best of luck.
 
I was thinking the same thing, but I don't see anything wrong with him. I do see that same stunned look. Now he is trying to flip over, (he is always upside down) but his actions seem logical and with purpose, not just random death throes. It's been about 2 hours now since it happened.
 
I think time will fix him. I was cleaning my deformed, mutant, stunted "koi" tank once (there's a story..stupid people...) and I was starting the syphon and whacked a fish right on the head. It was swimming upside down and convulsing - I thought he was toast. He almost ended up in the freezer, but I obviously wanted to make sure he was hopeless before doing that, so I waited until the next day. When I woke up I found a perfectly happy fish!
 
Alright, that's a happy story!

Now it's looking like the hood got the gar in his mid section. Simply from my knowledge of human anatomy, I'm worried that I may've severed some nerves, (he doesn't look like his back is broked.) The strange thing is that he when he is able to right himself, he can swim almost normally, but when he begins to menuevure he will start to flip again. He always flips to his left, and for the pilots here, the behavior is that of loosing a wingtip and trying to control your (pitch or yaw; it's been awhile) by shifting power between your four engines - he's trying to compensate but sometimes over compensates, etc.
 
I had that happen to me once, except I sucked a guppy into the siphon. Man was he freaked, but the next day woke up and he was fine.














I think it's roll not pitch or yaw. Yaw it angle, like, ooh hard to explain, uses the rudder and moves the tail to the left or right while moving nose opposite direction. So to make it extrem ( and not possible) you could yaw your plane so that it's going sideways. Ptch is up or down.:p
 
Yeah, thats right. A know what you mean with yaw - it's rotating the plane on an axis located in the center in a horizontal motion. Or something.

What would you recommend I feed him? Would minnows stress him out more?
 
i'm no expert, but.... i accidently dropped my driftwood while cleaing the other day (killed one loach)... the other fish seemed very upset.. only thing i did was turn off the lights in the room and put a sheet over the tank.... i dunno if theres' anything scientific to it, i just thought darkness would calm them down... might try it?
 
Beefheart? How so?
 
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