Question about gars and broken backs

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CTU2fan

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 12, 2007
3,123
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Port Orange, FL
OK, so I basically watched my gar hurt his back yesterday. He went for the same piece of food as another fish, struck at it, missed, and never hit anything...but after that he's got this little curve going on with his back. Not an outright kink, but before he always swam with his back almost perfectly horizontal, and after there's a bit of a curve. He's acting normal, eating, swimming normally, everything moving right.

The question is, one, will it heal? I would guess no, but I'm thinking it's maybe not really broken because if so I wouldn't expect him to be functioning well the way he is. And two, is it cruel to have him like this, if it is broken? I've seen pics of gars with horribly kinked backs and it's hard to imagine they can get around comfortably, but mine isn't like that at all.

This sucks :(
 
its entirely possile it slighty injured its back and entirely possible it will correct itself
 
it will most likly be fine. give some pics though
 
I will try to get some pics but I've a rather lousy camera. He really doesn't seem to mind, if he's not in any discomfort it's fine with me but it would be cool if it did correct itself.
 
beblondie;3165502; said:
its entirely possile it slighty injured its back and entirely possible it will correct itself
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I agree , i just witnessed the same event with my gar , i woke and checked on my tank to find my gar in an almost ( form , had me worried as he could not swin in a correct way , a day or 2 later he started to eat again and now he looks almost normal . here is hoping he recovers and ures does as well.
 
my buddys spotted got transported from one tank to another and now its back is broken. He struggles to swim and struggles to reach top of tank to gulp air.

kind of sucks-seeing him looking in pain. Hopefully he recovers. :(
 
do broken backs always fix themselves?....will it leave a slight hump?...or is my friend F$#@%ed !!!

I just called him and he said to mention it is not eating. I will try to get picture.
 
If he's still using his tail fin, and any other fins on the back half of his body, then his back isn't broken, probably just strained or something. If it's not broken, it will most likely heal eventually, it will just have a little trouble getting around and eating until it does. As long as it continues to eat, and doesn't have any trouble getting to the surface to breath, then I wouldn't worry too much about it.

If the back is broken (i.e. no movement from the back half or so of his body), then it's much less likely that he'd survive, IMO, although it will be more likely in captivity than in the wild.
 
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