HELP!! I just Found a Rummy nose on the floor

mel_20_20

mel_20_20

AC Members
Sep 1, 2008
3,300
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Deep in the heart of texas
HELP!!!
I just picked one of my Rummy nose tetras up off the tile floor. He jumped out of my 40 gallon breeder. It's quite a fall, maybe 48 inches from the top to the floor. I think he may have been lying there for 2 to 5 minutes, I'm not sure.

I had heard a sound as I turned off the lights in the living room and was going to go to bed. I looked around in the tanks for about 2 to 5 minutes and then saw him on the floor. I picked him up and dropped him back into the tank, but he was floating upside down.

I then noticed he had some dust and cat hair on him, he might have landed behind the tank and flopped out to where I could see him at the side. After I had him back in the tank I decided I should get him out to get anything clinging to him off of him.

I netted him out and had him in some of his tank water in a small tub and pulled the stuff off him without touching him and then, unsure what to do, I put him back in the tank.

I don't know what to do for him. He's just floating around the tank, belly up. He's breathing, and every now and then he tries to swim, but his attempts are weak, and he's mostly drifting. I don't know if I should leave him in there and go to bed, or go ahead and euthanize him.

Can he recover from this trauma? Should I take a chance and leave him in the tank. This was a terrible fall for him onto a hard tile floor.

I don't know for sure how long he was there, but when I saw him he was not moving, then a slight flick of his caudal fin told me he was alive.

I hate this for the poor little thing. I've never had a fish jump out before and I don't know how he did it; the tank has only a very narrow area uncovered.

Any advice will be very much appreciated.
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He's still floating upside down... at the surface. Gill beats are slower, now. Poor little thing. I don't think he's going to make it. I don't know if he was oxygen deprived for too long a time, or if he sustained some injury from the fall.

I can see no visible sign of damage to his body.
 
Well, it's over.
 
Aww bummer sorry for your loss. It reminds me of when i had a very large oscar . i had the oscar for years in his 75 gallon tank he was a happy friendly fish lol. well one day I decided to get a convict and she musta terrorized him bad he jumped from the tank while i was sleeping all I heard was my wolf going to town on him broke my heart.
 
Oh, Mel. I know how much you love your bratty little Rummies. Sometimes weird things happen that you can't prevent. I am so sorry.
 
I'm so sorry for your loss Mel.

I lost a beautiful male Betta that way. He was the only fish in a 29 gallon, and would get very active after partial water changes and would build bubble nests with the floating plants. How in the world he found that small area in the back of the tank to flip out of is beyond me but he did.
I found him on the floor and put him back since he was still breathing, but he was not quite the same and died a day later.

Again I am so sorry for your loss.
 
Just a tip for anyone interested.

I've noticed that the fish kind of "freak out" if the lights go on all at once or are shut off and they have absolutely no light. I make sure that the blinds are open in my fish room and a nightlight is on in the room. I first shut off the lights for my plants, and then about a half hour later turn the lights off in the tanks. They still have early evening light from the window.

In the morning the room slowly lights up at dawn, and then I turn the plant lights on first to get them used to the fact that soon their light will be on. An hour later I turn on the tank lights.

No more fish freaking out and splashing around due to a light change.
 
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