GAR EMERGENCY! something broke?

[phillydog1958]

GOOD LUCK AND KEEP US POSTED!!!

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?

 

[ettfettbranamn]

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

yup. did that..

mkai.. any ideas on what happened? the back looks a bit more "banana" with the ends bent downwards.. never seen anything like it! could it have broken its own back/something? there was no force what so ever in the strike for the shrimp or anything.. looked a bit like epilepsy.. and I handled him to prevent him from further damage in his spastic session (just wanted to clarify) thank you!

he is breathing well, the swimming is a bit better but it does not look perfect.. its a bit "wigelish" and stiff..

 

[xander]

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

more or less as good advise as you'll get. however i might just add, i had a small florida smash into the substrate and died without any indication that its back was hurt after spiraling out of control..try and keep it as stress free as possible, reduce the lights and im assuming it's not in with the huge snakead, but definately keep him out of reach of active or boisterous tankmates if any(divider?). floating plants somewhere down the line to help it feel more secure while recovery. everything said there's nothing much you can do except hope it did not attain any lasting or severe injuries. do keep us updated on its progress, definately sucks to lose a fish, esp since you're in sweden. ps: you'll know it's making progress if it begins to feed again. good luck man

edit: did he hit into any tankwalls while grabbing the shrimp?

 

[ettfettbranamn]

more or less as good advise as you'll get. however i might just add, i had a small florida smash into the substrate and died without any indication that its back was hurt after spiraling out of control..try and keep it as stress free as possible, reduce the lights and im assuming it's not in with the huge snakead, but definately keep him out of reach of active or boisterous tankmates if any(divider?). floating plants somewhere down the line to help it feel more secure while recovery. everything said there's nothing much you can do except hope it did not attain any lasting or severe injuries. do keep us updated on its progress, definately sucks to lose a fish, esp since you're in sweden. ps: you'll know it's making progress if it begins to feed again. good luck man

edit: did he hit into any tankwalls while grabbing the shrimp?

nonono.. he is in a 30g with a smaller florida.. surface entirely covered with floating plants and I put out the lights first thing I did..

yeah.. keeping my fingers crossed!

 

[ettfettbranamn]

gar is still alive.. he wanted to eat (I wiggled my finger to check reaction) but I'm still a bit nervous, don't want him spazzing out again..

 

[CTU2fan]

Sounds like what happened to mine...he is still alive but hasn't eaten in months, can't decide if I should euthanize or if he still has a chance. Yours is smaller (I assume anyway, since he's in a 30G, mine is 18" long) so maybe he's got more of a chance to heal up...mine ate after it happened but his appetite declined. He went from eating, to eating less, to spitting out what he took, to ignoring food altogether.

 

[ViperCLKGTR]

Sounds like a common case of a Gar knocking itself out.... My 12" Florida would do it just randomly during the most akward times, turn the lights off and leave him be for a day or two he'll be right back to normal.