fish w no gill plates

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
B

bukster

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 9, 2007
708
0
0
Toledo
wow!...do not make the same mistake i did. i heavily underestimated my helogenes marmoratus. he just sits on the bottom under a rock 24-7. or so i thought. so i put my new baby peruno x rtc in with him. came home from work today and the hybrid is on top of the tank swimming with no fins and no gill plates. but he's still alive. i dosed the tank with melafix, turned the lights out
, and the tank is already at bout 86 degrees. is there anything else i can do to help my lil buddy out?

word to the wise do not underestimate the helogenes marmoratus it's a mean sucker.
 
bukster;978498; said:
wow!...do not make the same mistake i did. i heavily underestimated my helogenes marmoratus. he just sits on the bottom under a rock 24-7. or so i thought. so i put my new baby peruno x rtc in with him. came home from work today and the hybrid is on top of the tank swimming with no fins and no gill plates. but he's still alive. i dosed the tank with melafix, turned the lights out
, and the tank is already at bout 86 degrees. is there anything else i can do to help my lil buddy out?

word to the wise do not underestimate the helogenes marmoratus it's a mean sucker.
Click to expand...

Ugh!!! did you seperate, first and foremost... and is the hybrid swimming right? or upside down?:(
 
yeah first thing i did is take out the marmoratus cuz i didn't want to move the hybrid and cause further harm...he was just sitting on the bottom a minute ago but now he's back on top swimming ok sometimes upright sometimes he pushes against the sides and flips upside down...i have no idea how it's alive.
 
His gills absorb air directly through the water so long as there is enough dissolved oxygen in the water for the gills to absorb he's fine. I'd say definitely increase the oxygen in the water. Be very weary of parasites, and desiese at this point. His gills are very vulnerable. The gill covers protect the gills, and they can use them to increase water flow over the gills, but he can still swim around when he needs more oxygen. To be honest, your fish will probably die. If not now, soon from parasites or desiese, but don't let that get you down. If you want to keep him, and he lives the more power to you. Add a little salt to your tank also if you don't already do it. I find things heal much quicker with salt added. Are the entire plates gone or just the skin? The skin grows bac, but if the bone was taken off below a certain point the covers will never grow back, and you are going to have to fight a constant battle against parasites, and desiese. Good luck and keep us updated. Provide pics if possible.
 
oh, just to add, I've seen catfish survive some pretty serious injuries, so don't let anything I've said keep you down. I've caught a channel cat that obviously had been bitten by a turtle or something when it was smaller. It had no eyes, and like half it's head appeared to be missing, along with both pectorial fins. Pretty much it had half a head, no eyes, whiskers on one side only, I think it only had gills on one side, and the mouth was squished to the one side with skin covering most of it, and the fish was about 10 lbs. so they are tough.
 
yeah he's lookin ok now...the whole covers are gone. it's weird the marmoratus only targeted the gill plates and fins when he could have just killed it.
 
Just remember to treat him everyday, and daily water changes wouldn't hurt either. I do this when my fish are sick, and it seems to help. I do about %25 daily on my q-tank when they are sick or injured. Glad to hear he looks better.
 
still hangin in there..but now he's got some ick..hoping he's gonna pull through but kinda doubting it...we'll see i guess.. btw how do you all clean a tank that had a sick fish in it before putting new ones in?
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
MonsterFishKeepers.com
Top Bottom