N Fusco Emergency

[jrthor_85]

So I go to feed this morning and notice my Fusco no eating, then a tail sticking out of it's mouth. The Fusco tried to eat a syno. petricola, and the catfish is lodged in the fusco's mouth just past the pectoral fins. The pec. fins don't appear to be into the throat yet, so this may be salvageable (not for the catfish, but that's karma)

Can I try to net the fusco and get the petricola out with some small surgical pliers? any one have a better idea? With the spines on the petricola's fins, I don't think the fusco will be able to spit it out on it's own.

 

[joe jaskot]

Had this happen with another fish before. You have nothing to lose. If you don't remove the catfish the fusco will die.

 

[jrthor_85]

Poor quality photos from wife's blackberry. camera batteries were dead

 

[jrthor_85]

Ok crisis resolved. luckily managed to net the fusco pretty easily, and got the syno. out with a pair or hemostat pliers. Catfish was still alive but beyond help. Dorsal barb went through fusco's mouth plate right above the lips which ain't bad, but one of the pectoral spines was into the toungue/gil bracing on the bottom of the mouth. The Only external damage was a bit a scraping on the fusco's forehead from trying to avoid the net. He's swimming around a little dazed atm (maybe from being out of water for a minute or two) and he's holding his mouth about 25% open, though he can close and yawn on his own.

Seems like he should be ok, but only time will tell. He really is one of my favorite fish.

Thanks for pitching in, Joe!

 

[Robulus153]

This is great! Is he still doing good?

 

[jrthor_85]

Yep, like nothing happened.

 

[Allan01230]

I would go with some bigger cats like angelicus or lace cats to avoid this promblem in the future.

 

[jrthor_85]

I would go with some bigger cats like angelicus or lace cats to avoid this promblem in the future.

I've been growing these petricolas out for 6 months or so. got them at 3/4" and now the smallest of them is 2.5", about the same size I introduce offspring back to the main tank. I understand that aggression/predation will happen, and as my higher-tier predators get even larger I'll have to increase the size threshold of new fish into tank. Luckily, I work from home and if something like this happens again, I am around to fix it as best I can while also understanding that things do happen.