Ok so my long standing resident Oscar decided my new F1 Texas looked good enough to eat. Now its seems to be stuck in his mouth, I did net him and hold him in a towel to see if I could remove the fish gently but it was wedged in there good. I didn't want to put too much pressure on in case I harmed Oscar. Now he's swimming about with its tail just sticking out its mouth. Any quick advice very gratefully received thank you.
Oscar stuck fish in mouth
- Thread starter ford130
- Start date
If just the tail is hanging out and the rest is not stuck than he should be fine. But if its wedged in there by fins or just size than you will have to cut the dead fish up a lil. My friends oscar had a catfish stuck inits mouth. I held him while my friend kinda cut up the fish inside the oscars mouth without hurting the oscar.
J.Lake;4997438; said:
Oh crap I dont like the sound of that, he already hurt his head trying to escape my netting attempts the first time. How long should I leave it before I have to intervene again. How long should it take him to eat it if he is going to?
J.Lake;4997438; said:
+1
I have had to cut a fish out of another's mouth before. It may not be pleasant but its better that having both your fish die.
ford130;4997461; said:
How long has this fish been in its mouth? If you see the oscar in distress then you know its time to act fast. Get your self a pair of kitchen sheers. They are strong enough to cut through chicken bone and you will be able to cut the fish out.
Its been just over an hour now, he's not distressed and just swimming about with his mouth open. He's like chewing so I'm assuming he's using his throat teeth to try and chew/grind up the texas. Really dont know if I should intervene or not at this stage. Really dont want to go to bed leaving him like this but on the other hand don't want to stress him and cause injury by interferring if he can handle it himself. That will teach me in future about putting smaller fish in.
ford130;4997526; said:
Look heres the thing. If the oscar has not been able to eat the texas after an hour then it is too big for the oscar to eat. The best thing to do is to remove the texas form the oscar's mouth. Better to do it now then wake up in the morning with the oscar dead as well.
bigbadfish711;4997924; said:
Just an update I took the advice and netted him out again and removed the Texas, well the half that was left. Either his fins were lodged or he was just too physically big to swallow the rest. Half the fish had been devoured and chewed off by his throat teeth. He was only a touch smaller then an Acara that has been in there weeks with him. Its not like I dont feed him, he's just a pig. Ah well another valuable lesson learned, thanks for all the advice.