Silver Arowana has busted lip. Surgery needed?

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Johnywestn

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Jan 25, 2008
42
0
36
Ma, USA
Hi all I have a very pressing question to ask the forum. You see, my 20" Silver Arowana 5 days ago jumped up and busted it's bottom lip in 2. It's not even connected now and has a rip where it's throat use to be. It is swimming around like nothing happened, and eating, but I'm worried it will not heal right. I'm planning on doing surgery myself. I already bought some "Arowana Stabilizer" to assist me in doing that. It was suggested to me to use "Super glue" or to try to stitch it up or both by a pet shop owner. But I'm looking for some advice before undergoing this ordeal. Any good advice would be appreciate! I attached some pictures to show what happened.

If you know of any vets in the Chelmsford, MA area that would be able to help me, let me know. Thanks.

Arowana1.jpg

Arowana2.jpg
 
As long as he is eating i would not do a thing..it will heal maybe not look perfect but at least he's alive and well... unless you really know what your doing as far as surgery etc his life will be at a risk.Poor guy ..wish you the best!
 
Thanks. I hope to be able to do something for him though. As you see he's got a hole under his lip and I'm not sure if it's going to heal up. Food sometimes comes through it too.
 
Johnywestn;1455916; said:
Thanks. I hope to be able to do something for him though. As you see he's got a hole under his lip and I'm not sure if it's going to heal up. Food sometimes comes through it too.
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oh i understand now... i did not realize that there was a hole in his neck... i wish you the best... maybe you can get intouch with someone at cornell university...some one or some professor who can quide you though the delicate operation or at least advise with whether there was a chance the hole would heal.. seek out the biology marine life etc at cornell and google it..keep feeding him good since you want to make sure he stays nourished.
 
Wow...I think you'll definetly have to do some sort of surgery. Not sure what advise to give but I'm not sure super glue will work in water, I have used on cuts on my hands andd the super glue does get soft and come of when soaked in water. I would look into some medical grade disolving stiches to sew the mouth up with. Also after the repair I would not feed for a couple weeks to let heal. If you can find johnptc thread about moving his arapaima you can get an idea how to sedate yoru aro, clove oil will also work for this.
 
Here is a link to a similar thing from a year ago. There are couple of links in the thread, about surgery on fish.

Broken Jaw Silver
 
A link to johnptc's thread, in this there is info on sedating your fish. Could PM John I'm sure he'd be happy to help.

How We Moved Our 5 Foot Arapaima Gigas

The below is quoted from an article in the August 2005 issue of TFH. Article is "Puffer Dentistry" by Jeni C. Tyrell. This is for three inch fish so it may not be helpful.
Fill the one quart containers with 3 cups of tank water in each. Put 3 drops of clove oil into one container. Add the fish into this bowl. Within one minute the fish will roll on it's side and then lay on it's back. This will lok scary to you but your fish will be fine...Then goes on about trimming the puffers teeth...Place the puffer in a bowl of fresh tank water. You should see it breathing. After one minute it will right itself and after two minutes it will be swimming.
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Thanks for checking this out for me. Those links are very useful. So how do I "PM" John? What is "PM"? Sorry I'm a newb here.
 
Johnywestn;1456255; said:
Thanks for checking this out for me. Those links are very useful. So how do I "PM" John? What is "PM"? Sorry I'm a newb here.
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I'll PM him and link him to this thread.
 
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