Loaches Online Forum

I have a 7 inch golden dojo/weather loach who has a small pebble stuck in its mouth. How do I get it out without harming it?

I wish I could help you and hope someone will be along soon. I hope he can spit it out on his own. Great Emma replied below!

Hi Sally,

If the fish looks to be in distress, and you are confident enough, I would take a wet towel (and make sure it is wet - this is really important), net the Dojo loach out and place it on the wet towel. Wrap the towel around the fish to hold it still, with just the mouth protruding. Have some small tweezers to hand, with which you can try and dislodge/lever out the stone. You'll need to be quick to cause as little stress as possible, but wrapped in the wet towel, you will have a few mins in which to work.

Of course, some fish will be able to free stuck items themselves, but this is not always the case.

Good luck,

Emma

Then consider changing your substrate to either a larger or smaller grain size. Large enough that the pieces can't get into the mouth, or sand, which won't get stuck.

Thanks for the replies. I haven't been very successful though. I can't get him wrapped up. He keeps wriggling around. And I'm afraid of hurting him. Also, to me it doesn't look like the tweezers will fit in his mouth. He doesn't seem bothered much by the pebble though.

I've heard of people using oil of cloves to anesthetize their fish. Would that be okay to use that on my loach. I think it would make it easier to work on my fish and make me more confident to get that pebble.

As for the substrate, the pieces are kind of big. They are almost the size of the loach's head. I was surprised to find that there was a piece small enough to fit in his mouth in the tank.

Sally how is he doing??? Do you have a second set of hands?

I had a miserable experience trying to euthanize a dojo with clove oil. I mixed it well but 15 minutes of struggling and he finally passed. It was horrible to watch. I wonder if I did something wrong or if it was not effective on dojos for some reason. Again I put this out to the loach experts.

I hope he's okay.

He's doing great now, thanks! It seems he was able to get it out himself. I am so relieved.

I'm sorry about your experience. It is horrible dealing with sick and dying fish. I hope I don't ever have to euthanize a fish. But there probably will come a time I will have to, and when that time comes, I hope very much I do it right.