It was a nice day last week, so me and my friends loaded up the car and headed for the fish pond across campus. Good times...the goldfish were already active when we got there and before long we were pulling up bullhead after bullhead...most no longer than 5 or 6 inches.
Then my friend got a hit. I swear this rod bent in a circle and he pulled up the biggest bullhead I have ever seen in that pond. He has to be 10 inches if he's nothing. My other friend goes 'Whoa...Sarah, do you want to go get a bucket?'. Initially my answer was no, but as resident fish-unhooker I quickly noticed that the hook was deeply embedded in the poor guy's eye and apparently Andrew had not unbarbed his hook like I usually do, and so we headed back to dorm to grab one of those big giant orange home depot bucket.
Surgery was performed under clove oil general anesthesia and the hook was removed without much incident using a pair of wire snips. I dosed the whole tank with some praziquantel and applied some antibiotic to the wounds. 'Andrew' now has a nice sized hole in his face and quite a bit of blood behind his retina, but he seems to have settled in well to my 20 gallon with my other bullhead, who is about 2/3 his size. They curl up together, share their food, etc. Initially I was worried about fighting, but none of this seems to happen and actually I've seen increased activity and color on the little one since he's gotten a buddy.
Word's out on whether or not I'll be re-releasing him...I didn't really intend to keep him originally but I'm going to a dorm next semester where I'll have space for a 50 gallon and so I'm thinking about it...the tank is big enough for now with the near-constant cleaning I do in it.
I've never seen a bullhead this big. Pics may come later
Then my friend got a hit. I swear this rod bent in a circle and he pulled up the biggest bullhead I have ever seen in that pond. He has to be 10 inches if he's nothing. My other friend goes 'Whoa...Sarah, do you want to go get a bucket?'. Initially my answer was no, but as resident fish-unhooker I quickly noticed that the hook was deeply embedded in the poor guy's eye and apparently Andrew had not unbarbed his hook like I usually do, and so we headed back to dorm to grab one of those big giant orange home depot bucket.
Surgery was performed under clove oil general anesthesia and the hook was removed without much incident using a pair of wire snips. I dosed the whole tank with some praziquantel and applied some antibiotic to the wounds. 'Andrew' now has a nice sized hole in his face and quite a bit of blood behind his retina, but he seems to have settled in well to my 20 gallon with my other bullhead, who is about 2/3 his size. They curl up together, share their food, etc. Initially I was worried about fighting, but none of this seems to happen and actually I've seen increased activity and color on the little one since he's gotten a buddy.
Word's out on whether or not I'll be re-releasing him...I didn't really intend to keep him originally but I'm going to a dorm next semester where I'll have space for a 50 gallon and so I'm thinking about it...the tank is big enough for now with the near-constant cleaning I do in it.
I've never seen a bullhead this big. Pics may come later
