Sick black aro

[SpeshulEd]

I posted about this in the aro section, but thought I would try in here before I put him down.

My black aro got spooked and hit the side of the tank quite hard. It resulted in a nose dive. I put him in a sling in a stream of water. He's still alive, but hasn't shown much improvement.

It's been over 24 hours now and all I get out of him is a little twitching. He still floats sideways and just doesn't seem to have the will to swim.

This is how I have him rigged up. I take him down a couple times a day to see if he'll do anything, but usually there's nothing.

I guess its very possible he broke his back, but is there any sure way I can tell. I would really hate to kill a fish that would recover. I'm just not sure how long recovery could take. And if he did break his back, I might just be making him suffer longer.

 

[Bderick67]

Wow, sorry to hear. You may also want to use a powerhead and direct current towards him to increase his oxygen intake. I would give a couple days then make the decision if no signs of improvement.

 

[SpeshulEd]

Thanks Brian, I was hoping you'd see one of my threads.

I have two hydor koralia 8's in my tank. I don't have the water blasting at him, but he is getting a good amount of flow moving over him.

I have noticed his slime coat is starting to wear in places. I'm not sure what I can really do about that. At this point I'm trying to only touch him with the wet tshirt, and not move him too much, just enough to reallign him in the sling and see if he'll do anything but nose dive when let go.