Foxface vs. Powerhead

ladypheesh

ladypheesh

Frank the tank!
Well we just haven't had much luck so far with our fish. Tonight I get home and our foxface was stuck on the Koralia... I was pretty sure he was dead so I shut off the flow to get him off of it and HOLY CRAP he is alive... he swam away like it was no big deal... but basically his left fin is all torn up, also his mouth and around his eye... he seems to be okay but is there anything I can do to help him heal? Does he have any chance? we have a qt tank but it is currently occupied by our new chromis which have only been in there for 12 days.

Thanks guys
April
 
You've basically got 2 choices.Either move the chromis to the display and qt the foxface,or take your chances with the foxface in the display.
A healthy fish shouldnt get stuck to the koralia,so I'd be worried about him in the display.You dont want him to expire back in the rock work if you can help it.
Hopefully he's not that bad off.
 
that's what I was thinking of doing... the risk of the chromis having something seems less of a risk than leaving him in there.
 
yes he's upright and breathing seems pretty normal. We moved him to the qt and the chromis are being acclimated to the dt.

I think our biggest worry is that he may starve... his mouth is totally jacked up.
 
Your welcome.But I was just the first to read your post.
You may have to feed him something like emerald entree for a while.That may make it easier for him to eat.But add some garlic to what ever you feed him.He's gonna be pretty stressed untill his mouth heals.
 
Does your Koralia have the guard on the front? I have a foxface that is always trying to get stuff off the powerheads but he's never gotten stuck on one.
 
the one that he was stuck on did have the concentrator on the front but I don't know what you mean by a guard, maybe they're the same thing?

It's so wierd, he was in the qt all night and when I came in I was sure he was dead... there is a koralia nano in the qt and guess what... he was up against it. so I turned it off and he just swims away... Is he just giving up? He is sticking his mouth up out of the water more than last night, which I guess probably means his breathing is getting worse.

I really don't think he's going to make it, but I figure he has the best chance in the qt and at least we won't have to dig him out of rockwork.
 
If you really dont think he's going to survive.Then you might want to think about putting him down.
I dont like to see anything suffer.
 
I've had to euthanize a firefish before :( Same situation, it was sick and kept getting stuck to a powerhead, and I didn't want to let it keep doing that to itself. It's really really hard to do. Hell, I cried when I had to euthanize one of my clams!

I agree with Yote, a healthy fish wouldn't have gotten stuck to a Koralia in the first place. If he keeps getting stuck in the QT, chances for survival are low, unfortunately.

But I do think you made the right choice in moving him over there and putting the chromis in the main tank.
 
Well we were giving him at least until we got home from church today to see signs of improvement before we started discussing putting him down, but he died sometime while we were gone.

It's so strange though because if he was sick he didn't show anything at all. I looked closely at him around 11:00 yesterday morning and then in the evening he was just in such poor condition. He had been eating, swimming, and doing everything else normally and then when we got home it was this totaly 180 where he was all beat up. It really looked like powerhead injuries... what kind of diseases set on so quickly and don't have visible symptoms?

once again thanks for all of your help and advice everyone.

for future reference though... if you guys have to put a fish down, how do you do it? We were discussing it last night and since we don't have anesthesia or anything I just don't know what the most humane method would be... I guess freezing?
 
Its possible that he got his snout stuck in the guard and injured himself trying to get a way.I've seen that happen several times.The edges of the plastic has some pretty sharp corners.And a fish that picking food off the power heads dont know any better than to wedge their nose in there.
As for putting them down,I dont think I would want to be frozen to death.That seem to slow and the fish is suffacating while its body is freezing.I think I would perfer a good sharp fillet knife.Quick clean cut right behind the head to sever the spinal column.
 
The most commonly recommended ways to euthanize a fish are to freeze them in saltwater (too slow for me to handle), cut head off (too gruesome for me to handle), smash their head in with a hard object (again, too gruesome), or a quick dunk in vodka. The last method is what I've used in the past. It was instantaneous.
 
well I guess if I was going out and got to pick... pretty sure I'd go with vodka!

Yote, I have to guess that's exactly what happened... his mouth was the most messed up of anything. there was some green algae on the powerhead that he may have been going for.

kyle, apparently my cat is to picky to eat saltwater fish... when my diamond goby jumped out the cat was the first to find it, and instead of trying to eat it she just started meowing and looking at me like WHAT THE HECK IS THIS???????? (and of course I am SURE you are joking beacause that would be so mean for the fish)
 

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