I think my spotted gar is paralyzed half way down his body. He is about 8 inches long and he shot across the tank to grab some shrimp. I did not see him hit anything but all of a sudden he flipped over and went into what looked like a seizure. He went to the bottom upside down and shaking. I grabbed him and tried to hold him up right. As soon as I would loosen my grip he would flip back over. I don't know what to do. He is still breathing but cannot keep himself up right. Any one experience this? His body is still streamline with not bends in it.
Paralyzed gar?? HELP??
- Thread starter FishDog
- Start date
FishDog;2145604; said:
Fish may be just stunned.
I would suggest placing the fish in a spare tank or container that is very shallow. (one inch at most) Do not keep him in a large tank for a few days. Shallow water will allow the fish to continue to breach (Breath air) even if it is slightly injured. If the injury is minor you should have the fish recover quickly and you should see results quickly..
A worst case situation here though is it did in fact hit something hard enough to break the back or sever the spinal cord. In this case there is not much that can be done for the fish. In this case I would suggest putting it down rather than trying to save it.
I decided to put him down. After about 10 minutes he quit trying to flip over and just layed on his back breathing hard. I put him in a bowl of shallow water and he still could not stay on his belly. After about 30 minutes he quit moving all together except his gills. If you flipped him onto his belly he would turn right back over. He is in the freezer now.
sorry for your loss.
you should preserve him. seen someone saying they do that on here.
anybody have info on this.
you should preserve him. seen someone saying they do that on here.
anybody have info on this.
ANIMALHOUSE;2148971; said:
put into 10% formaldehyde solution for 2-3 days (make a cut on the right ventral side of the fish if it's larger than 10") and then you can either keep it in the solution in a different container OR let it air dry for about a week and it will keep for a very long time (easily decades). this really only works well with gars and bichirs because of their bony scales; most other fishes will shrivel up during the drying process. hope that helps--
--solomon
should have let him be it's happened to mine twice looks like he was bent about half way snaps out of it pretty quick