HELP PLEASE --fish emergency

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wildflower

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Feb 14, 2013
31
0
0
Flint, Michigan
My bala shark has a rock stuck in it's mouth. I have tried tweezers but every time I get a hold of it, it just slips down in his throat/mouth. I have tried several times but I am just stressing him out more. He keep swimming around shaking his body and then you can see it sitting right at his lips, but of course it's bigger than what his mouth is.
Is there anything I can do? I don't want to just sit and watch him die because of it. Just every time I get a grip on it he starts wiggling or it slides or he starts moving his mouth around and I can't grab it. He's smaller, he's about 5 inches long. I've tried rubbing gently on his throat to try and get it to move so i can maybe get a better grip on it or it could just fall back out the way he got it in. But it isn't working.

Anyone? Anything?
 
Pics? And don't be too soft trying to get it out.
 
I felt like I was hurting him when I was holding on to him trying to get it out and I didn't want to hurt his mouth but after letting him swim around and calm down some I grabbed him again and finally got it out. You could hear him grinding it in his mouth trying to move it around when you would pick him up out of the water. I guess I know now it's okay to be a little rougher with fish, they are tough. He looks a little rough missing some scales now but he's swimming around like normal now.

I was afraid of jabbing him with the tweezers and hurting him worse. I think I was freaking out more than it was. I know for the future now.
 
You can approach this a few ways. You can try to place the fish on and in a wet clean towel and hold it steady that way and try the tweezers again. Or you can leave the fish in a bucket with an airstone and some water conditioner with aloe in it, and let the fish work the stone out itself (if the stone got in that way, the fish can get it out - over time).
 
I found just getting a good grip on whatever is in their mouth w/ tweezers and letting them dangle over the tank and give it a lil' shake often gets it out... kinda like unhooking a fish. Glad you got it out, hope he recovers fast and easily!
 
Good save.I wonder how it happened in the first place...Balas are not usually bottom feeders are they?
 
Lol,could be.
 
When I posted this I actually came across 4 different posts on other sites about bala's getting the gravel stuck in their mouth. I would never say they are a bottom feeder but will definitely pick around in the gravel for food. Hopefully it learned to not pick gravel up in the future. The worst part is it managed to get a very light piece of gravel, like beige or off white and it was blending in with the inside of his lips so it was so hard to even see where the rock stopped and his lips started. I'm just glad it's over and it's acting normal again. He may have had it stuck in it's mouth all night because I was running late and didn't get to turn the lights on this morning.
 
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