Hi there!
I’ve recently set up a tropical aquarium (a month ago) and have been slowly adding fish with advice from my LFS. I’ve been keeping a close eye on them and have (perhaps unwisely) carefully chosen names for all 13 of them.
Today I came home from work and as usual checked the temperature and made sure filter was working and tried to count the fish. I count them out of habit, I like to know they’re all safe and sound. Last week I added 4 clown loaches to my tank and have had a hard time keeping track of them (as they like to hide in a large barrel decoration) so when I only counted 12 I thought little of it.
A few hours later I returned to feed my fishies and noticed an odd colour in the filter. I immediately suspected a plant leaf had been caught up but was horrified to discover one of the smaller loaches Tony (as in Tony the Tiger, don’t judge me lol) had been trapped under the lid. I can’t be sure how long she was there or even fathom how she got there!
I freed her from the filter and waited to see how she would respond but only became more distressed as she remained floating listlessly at the bottom of the tank on her side. I removed her from the tank and placed her in my hospital tank and can now clearly see damage to the fin on her back. She is unable to keep herself steady - constantly tilting to one side - and seems unable to move her tail at all.
I really don’t know what to do. I want to help her as best I can but if she could possibly be irreparably damaged I don’t want to cause her further suffering. I’m also concerned as I have much smaller fish in my tank and couldn’t imagine what would happen if the same happened to them. Tony was my smallest loach but one of my dwarf rainbow fish is 1/3 of her size (smaller than my thumb nail)!
Any advice would be so welcome right now!
I’ve recently set up a tropical aquarium (a month ago) and have been slowly adding fish with advice from my LFS. I’ve been keeping a close eye on them and have (perhaps unwisely) carefully chosen names for all 13 of them.
Today I came home from work and as usual checked the temperature and made sure filter was working and tried to count the fish. I count them out of habit, I like to know they’re all safe and sound. Last week I added 4 clown loaches to my tank and have had a hard time keeping track of them (as they like to hide in a large barrel decoration) so when I only counted 12 I thought little of it.
A few hours later I returned to feed my fishies and noticed an odd colour in the filter. I immediately suspected a plant leaf had been caught up but was horrified to discover one of the smaller loaches Tony (as in Tony the Tiger, don’t judge me lol) had been trapped under the lid. I can’t be sure how long she was there or even fathom how she got there!
I freed her from the filter and waited to see how she would respond but only became more distressed as she remained floating listlessly at the bottom of the tank on her side. I removed her from the tank and placed her in my hospital tank and can now clearly see damage to the fin on her back. She is unable to keep herself steady - constantly tilting to one side - and seems unable to move her tail at all.
I really don’t know what to do. I want to help her as best I can but if she could possibly be irreparably damaged I don’t want to cause her further suffering. I’m also concerned as I have much smaller fish in my tank and couldn’t imagine what would happen if the same happened to them. Tony was my smallest loach but one of my dwarf rainbow fish is 1/3 of her size (smaller than my thumb nail)!
Any advice would be so welcome right now!
