Deformed Gars.
- Thread starter Cheesetian
- Start date
christian, are they able to move all their fins? esp those in toward the posterior (back) of their body.
if they are, imo (mainly due to gut feeling rather than anything else) it's spine curve due to ammonia poisoning. i've seen it happen a lot of times in lfs. i've personally had some get it as well when i first started out. what you can do is to seperate them from the aro (as the rest have said), and ensure that they have VERY clean water.
if it really is spine curve, what you will need to do at this stage is to keep up the clean water, perhaps with 25% wc daily and if necessary, reduce the amount of food intake they have until their backs straighten (spine curve is curable, i've cured mine of it before). it's also a good idea to ensure that you don't spook them out; keep the lights off/dim, reduce or eliminate sudden movements around the tank, REMOVE THE JAR.
kudos for rescuing them from what would have been certain death at a lfs, but know that you have a long road of recovery to go through with these guys.
good luck
if they are, imo (mainly due to gut feeling rather than anything else) it's spine curve due to ammonia poisoning. i've seen it happen a lot of times in lfs. i've personally had some get it as well when i first started out. what you can do is to seperate them from the aro (as the rest have said), and ensure that they have VERY clean water.
if it really is spine curve, what you will need to do at this stage is to keep up the clean water, perhaps with 25% wc daily and if necessary, reduce the amount of food intake they have until their backs straighten (spine curve is curable, i've cured mine of it before). it's also a good idea to ensure that you don't spook them out; keep the lights off/dim, reduce or eliminate sudden movements around the tank, REMOVE THE JAR.
kudos for rescuing them from what would have been certain death at a lfs, but know that you have a long road of recovery to go through with these guys.
good luck
xander;4880435; said:
Will do Alex, will do. Don't have a spare tank so i guess i'll have to partition it. And yes they seem to be able to move all their fins.
I/ve had a gar that this happened to. At around 12" . I thought it was actually going to die. For a couple days it was even laying upside down. Eventually it made a 100% recovery and is straight as an arrow. Is now 20" and living in a monster gar community
It looks a bit worse than any ammonia burn I've seen. I've had shortnose gar that would bend significantly during shipment, but never like that. And one of them seems to have its jaws upturned as well. Looks spinal to me for sure.
Madding;4879293; said:
x2
xander;4881512; said:
Wow!!! I have seen gars in some pretty messed-up tanks but nothing like this..(Wholesale stores in Mumbai, India stock 3"-4" ones 3-4 dozen at a time in a 1.5 ft cube with only a sponge filter..)
@OP: As mentioned by experts above, if they are moving their dorsal fins and caudal (tail) fin, there is hope that they might recover.
Kudos for attempting to rescue them and good luck.
-Sid
