Sick gar! Please help!

theyangman

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
I came home after work today to find my favorite gar looking really bad. He was lying on his back in the corner of the tank not moving much.

I have a 180 gallon

2 X 10" silver aro
11" florida gar
8" peacock bass
7" tin foil barb
13" Lima Shovel Nose cat.

I have two emperor 400 hobs' with 2 Eheim Pro 3 canister filters and 2 Koralia 4's for water movement in the tank.

I do weekly water changes, and even this morning he was swimming around just fine. What could be wrong? I am uploading a video as I type.

I have kinda inspected him, his fins are PERFECT, so I don't think he was bullied, his scales and color is normal, but I did notice his butthole is kinda pink. Also it looks swollen, his tummy is kinda pinkish too, not that creamy yellow color. What could this be? And what steps can I take to save him??? Please help!!! All the other guys in the tank are swimming around just fine like it is any other day, but he is lying on the bottom doing the occasional barrel roll. His fins are moving fine, but it is like he has no ability to float, I bring him to the surface, and if I let him go, he sinks like a rock...

Please!
 

E_americanus

Penguin Lover
MFK Member
Aug 14, 2004
3,790
28
68
45
Louisiana
primitivefishes.com
Based off the despriction of the symptoms and the tankmate list, my money would be on spinal injury.
yeah, coupled with the video i would agree. that entire list of tankmates is highly inadvisable, primarily for the bullying/spooking threats they pose for gars (which often result in spinal injuries). just have to wait and see if the gar can recover on its own; best to remove it from the tank and set it up in a shallow, well-aerated tank so it can hopefully recover. if it is a bad spinal injury there is nothing you can do--
--solomon
 

Dahawkster15

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Jul 15, 2012
277
1
0
Silsbee, tx
Definitely a spinal injury. That's going to be hard to recover from. Hope he makes it!
 
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