Loaches Online Forum

Yet another fish horror story... I've had this jar in my 72 gallon for perhaps a month now, and the blue loaches loved it. However, my biggest clown, Fornax, wedged himself into it for god knows what reason tonight. It scared the living daylights out of me. He got his body caught right through the neck of the jar and couldn't get out. So we put the fish and jar into a smaller water-filled container and broke the jar piece by piece around hin till we got to the neck. We were almost through the neck, and he finally managed to swim out, thank god!! He looks unharmed, except he completely shed his slime coat. I dumped Stress Coat into the tank, and had added some into the container as we worked on the jar, but there's still so much slime that came off...

What should I do?! If the clown doomed? Can anything else go wrong? Is it okay to sit and wait for his slime coat to replenish? Should I worry about the shedded slime getting over his gills?

Wow !! So glad you could get him out !!
I'd recommend just adding some melafix or similar just to make sure he dosen't get any infections if he did happen to scrape himself during his ordeal.

He has a very small abrasion on the top of his head, and his fins are slighlty ragged.... but I've done what you suggest. I added Melafix for the damage, Stress Coat for the slime coat, and I did a 50% water change.

Hi Icewall. I'm really glad you were able to rescue your loach without too much damage to him.
Hopefully the melafix will help in case any secondary infections appear due to the wounds he suffered & the Stress coat will help him regain his slime coat. Very smart thinking on your part.
Please keep us all updated on the progress of the unfortunate loach. I'm sure he will be fine due to your quick thinking & preventative treatment !!

I am constantly amazed by the things these guys try to stuff themselves into. So glad to hear he's OK!

Kate

Most probably the measures you have taken will be perfectly adequate. The slime loss was probably stress related and given that the fish was obviously fat and healthy before this incident it will probably recover without problem.
Healthy, established fish will heal up very quickly given clean water and good food. Is the fish back in the main tank now?

Martin.

Maybe do a 20% water change every day for a week, just to be extra safe.

Palaeodave a had a similar crisis a while ago - one of his B. almorrhae (sp?) got stuck in some of the decor for hours on end and shed a load of it's slime coat. after several hours with no way of getting it out. we were about to attempt to euthanise it to put it our of its misery when it suddenly wriggled free on its own accord. it had a scar all around it like a white ring for a while. it is currently at tip top health and condition.

this incident shouldnt be a real problem as long as it gets some good care over the next week or two.

good luck

Yes, early on we had a similar adventure. We hadn't seen one of the clowns in a while and realized he was stuck inside a crevice in a ceramic log- Stuart pulled the log out and took it to the sink- after what seemed like hours of trying to gently un-stick him, he wriggled free- Stuart scooped him up in his cupped hands and ran back to the tank yelling 'ouch ouch ouch' - that's how we learned about the barbels

Stu and the loach are both fine.

Kate

good thing you got him out!

Thanks... I'm going to keep a good eye on him, make sure the water stays clean. I'm glad to know the measures I took will be worthwhile. The clown seems okay this morning with a white spot on his head, but he's eating. He hides himself behind a plant for shame.

Icewall42 wrote: He hides himself behind a plant for shame.

lmao...

As I was out shopping today for some new things for my tank I saw this bottle on the shelf with the other decorative stuff and thought of this incident. Just kept on walking. Glad the guy is doing ok.