Gar experts - Diagnosis/help please!

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M

masone

Candiru
MFK Member
Feb 5, 2006
496
18
48
Cairns, Australia
One of my gars has been swimming strangely the last week. No signs of trauma and body is not bent.

Symptoms:
-No obvious bouyancy, spends all its time on the bottom
-Tends to wag through the water rather than using its pectorals (due to above issue?)
-Seems 'tail heavy' when it swims
-Still moves all fins and can reverse up when it wants
-Haven't seen it come up for air all week, I'm assuming it is getting up there or it would have drowned
-Still eating well
-Condition not worsening, just a bit traumatising to watch.

My first thought was broken back but no obvious bends, looks perfectly fine. Possibley given itself a good whack and damaged nervous system/spinal chord/swim bladder? I have been soaking food in garlic in case of IP and have added salt. Smaller hospital tank is ready to roll, figure less movement and shallow depth would aid in recovery if it is an injury. Also easier to medicate if needed as current tank is 7x3x2.5.

If you guys can check out the video and give me any hints as to what may be going on I would appreciate it. Being in Australia these guys are very hard to come by and very expensive (the bigger gar cost me over $1000) and I have had this guy for a while and would be devastated to lose him. Just had the tank built especially for this pair.
If you think it is a lost cause I will put him out of his misery. Will try for a longer and better video tomorrow.
Gar tank
IMG_0656.jpg

The sad swimmer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zXHSIKGZI5o

Thanks in advance
 
looks like the gar smacked into the wall and is in a bit of trauma. in my experience gars are usually able to shake this off in a couple of hours, so i'm not so sure as to whether or not the condition will improve since it's been a week. just carrying out the usual gar treatment procedures and hoping for the best would be my advise. would also definitely move it to the hospital tank, but do your best to avoid further stressing the fish or do anymore damage to it. keep an eye whether or not the fish is feeding, it's a pretty reliable gauge of whether or not the fish is getting better.

best of luck, hope the fish recovers, always sucks to have a fish get injured, especially when they're so rare/pricey over there.

xander

ps: the tank looks amazing!
 
Thanks mate, will move it to the hospital tank today. Seems perfectly fine and comes over for food like usual, only know something is off when it swims.
 
x2 what xander said. sounds like the exact same issue I just delt with with one of my floridas.. the best we can guess is he/she spooked at night and knocked hismelf a good one. I just kept the water clean and kept a good eye on him/her and she came out of it about 1 week later. I also was guessing it was some "minor" spinal/back injury. If anything I'de make sure the water perameters are staying steady and good. imo/ime clean water is key to any trama/recovery set-up. long as your not seeing signs of the fish doing worse... I agree just leaving it in it's current set-up is best to avoid stress. and possibly aggrivateing the injury worse by trying to move the fish.

Mine was "hurt" for a few days then started to swim more and more over a period of a few days.. and atm is back to swimming fine and dandy as she/he was before.

time will tell.. just keep those water changes comeing. and keep your fingers crossed he/she pulls threw. btw mine ate pretty much all threw it's recovery. not an expert like some of these guys but ime this is a very good sign and to remain very positive about.

I also would avoid meds personally as gar seem to be sensitive to them and they will likely do little to nothing in this situation. the only thing I did different or I should say my husband did. was he did extra 25% water changes to keep the nitrates as minimal as possible and to avoid any potential water quality snaffus. I was there yelling at him during all of them not to spook the fish.. poor guy he was as worried as I was.
 
Thanks MM, the gar has definitely been eating well which is encouraging and I think has been a bit more active in the last day or so. Seems to have a less pronounced wiggle when it moves (maybe I'm just seeing what I hope is happening). About to do another WC on the tank, have decided to keep it in the big tank to avoid further injury and stress.
 
Well a quick update - Had a house warmiung last night so decided to move the gar to the hospital tank to avoid any potential spooking and further injury. There was a bit of thrashing and carry on during the move but within 10 minutes of the gar being in the new tank it was swimming around normally. I'm at a complete loss for the instant recovery when it has made no real progress in the big tank for the past two weeks. I can only assume that it had a dislocation/pinched nerve/slipped disc and the thrashing around popped it back in place. It fed this morning and is salted and heated, will leave it in the hospital for a week then it can rejoin its partner. So happy and relieved!
 
Well again the gar worries me. After a week in the hospital tank, swimming around like nothing was ever wrong the gar went back in the big tank. The two gars swam around together, a bit of belly nudging but nothing too domineering or aggressive. Everything has been fine and then suddenly the smaller gar is showing the same symptoms again. Swimming in exagerated wagging style with pectoral fins held out like an aro. Super submission posture/swimming? I have never seen a fish do anything like that.

I would think it has a blockage but it eats and there is no swelling. Only other thing I can think is it has a swim bladder issue that has re-occured...arghhh back to the hospital tank. Any ideas on treatment? I will bump the temps but wondering if I should do an epsom bath or feed food injected with cod oil or something if its a blockage? Other gar is fine and acting normal, water params are all good, I'm stumped.
 
Hey masone,try moving the bigger gar out of your big tank for a while and see how your smaller one reacts, may be an issue with the larger one ?
 
I will be moving the smaller gar tomorrow, if it is an aggression issue then that will solve it, if it's something that needs treating it will be easier in a smaller tank. It The pair have been together since about september last year, can't imagine they would suddenly change attitude. And no split fins or anything to suggest any aggro. It appears to be a bouyancy issue, like the gar is super heavy. Is obviously breaking but or it would have drowned. Come summer they can go in the pool, I will use the tank for the pbass I think.
 
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