GAR EMERGENCY! something broke?

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ettfettbranamn

Polypterus
MFK Member
Nov 26, 2007
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I just tried to feed my gar (florida/spotted), he was perfectly fine from what I could tell, I put down the shrimp, he lashed at it, grabbed it and SNAP! something just happened.. he spat the shrimp out, then he just started shaking his head, bending, twirling and floated upside down in spasms.. and now I wonder what the hell happened..

I grabbed him (8") and started massaging him downwards since his tail floated more than the body, I held him upright and after a while he started looking somewhat more normal.. now he is lazy and disoriented and swims into the glass.. I started slowly raising the temperature in this tank but the other gar is doing fine.. from 70 to 80.. that is the only change I can recall.. any ideas?
 
that's a new one . . . it almost sounds like he went for the shrimp so aggressively that he harmed himself in some internal physiological way?

ettfettbranamn;3522235; said:
I just tried to feed my gar (florida/spotted), he was perfectly fine from what I could tell, I put down the shrimp, he lashed at it, grabbed it and SNAP! something just happened.. he spat the shrimp out, then he just started shaking his head, bending, twirling and floated upside down in spasms.. and now I wonder what the hell happened..

I grabbed him (8") and started massaging him downwards since his tail floated more than the body, I held him upright and after a while he started looking somewhat more normal.. now he is lazy and disoriented and swims into the glass.. I started slowly raising the temperature in this tank but the other gar is doing fine.. from 70 to 80.. that is the only change I can recall.. any ideas?
Click to expand...
 
he touched the pump lightly but not visibly enough to harm himself.. it looked more like that was a reaction from "breaking"..

yes.. I thought to that something broke inside.. but after I massaged him he was able to stay upright and he is still doing so! but he doesn't look to good..

wc? salt? for what?

I personally think that would be more probable to stress him out..
 
if it hit that during the action of grbbing the shrimp it could have injured itself...
 
water change, salt and increasing temperature are not solutions to your problem. I agree with you. all you can do is sit and wait and hope.
 
Hope everything turns out fine.
 
yeah.. so do I.. I have had him since he looked like a sewing needle.. liturally..

I turned out the lights.. just hoping for him to get through it..
 
xander bro.. where are you?
 
leave the fish alone and don't do anything else to the tank. at most you could reduce the light in the room and in the tank to reduce stress. the fish may have just knocked itself out and jarred its nervous system, i have had gars do this before.

pay attention to any potential back injury indications, but again, for now just leave the fish alone. definitely do not handle the fish as this will just stress it further. if it is going to recover, it will do so on its own. good luck--
--solomon
 
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