skewered by plastic plant

[Morledzep]

i have an MRTC hybrid catfish.. amoung others. a few months ago i noticed him swiming around with a plastic plant stuck under his chin. i thought he was just laying on it..

i few days later i saw him swimming around in the tank and the plant was still attached.. so i took a much closer look..

the plant had actually penetrated the skin on his belly. me and my son didn't want to catch him in a net, in case it pushed it further into his skin.. so we lowered the water level (the tank was due for a water change anyway), and tried to hold him gently and pull out the plant.

we got a big piece out.. and there was of course still a hole in his belly. but we thought we got it all. we finished the water change, raised the temp, added melafix. and watched and waited.

after a few weeks i thought i saw clean fish flesh in the hole in his belly, so i added salt to help him heal faster. and then yesterday.. after being salted for about 2 weeks i tried to check his wound again, and it's healing.. but there is another piece of the plant trying to come out now.

how this fish has survived this i'll never know. and i'm afraid to try to pull the other piece out, i'm afraid it's stuck in something vital and it'll kill him if we try to pull it out.

since we added the salt it looks like his body is pushing it out on it's own. so i think what i'm going to do is just let nature take care of it. keep the salt level up on the tank and keep the temp on the high side and double the water changes to keep the risk of infection minimal.

i think the reason i'm writing this is that i've never heard of anything like this happening before.. and i was wondering if anyone else has been through this and what they did when it happened.

 

[Lupin]

Glad it seems improving, Katherine. I'd just remove all the plastic plants to be safe.

 

[Morledzep]

lol, yea.. i've removed the plastic plants from all of the tanks except the one with the TGT's. at least until i can get some live plants for them to hide in..

 

[indiana.dutton]

Strange... what plant was it modeled after? a while ago i had a albino frogy thingie that sliced its belly open on a fake sword tail. Hope everythin heals up.

 

[BPags52]

I actually just removed my 2 4-5 year old plastic temple (or maybe sword) plants yesterday...broad leafed and the plastic was very...stiff. Even with a strong current it didn't sway.

A couple months ago I bought several tetra-silk plants, they are much more realistic (sway in the current, and much softer).

It wouldn't surprise me if my old plants caused injuries.

 

[Morledzep]

i'm not familiar with the names of the plants.. it's a long fern kinda things.. stiff stalk with little pin fronds the entire length..

i've seen similar live plants at petsmart for less than $3 a bunch if that helps..

 

[Morledzep]

ok.. update, in case anyone is interested.. there is now a piece of plant even bigger than the piece we pulled out of him coming out of the hole in his belly. we can't tell how much more plant is still inside him, so we're leaving it alone for now.

i'm hoping the rest of it comes out on it's own. i'm putting salt and melafix in the water after each water change. i'm mostly doing water changes every other day, sometimes every 3rd day, 30 - 40 gallons at a time.

i'm kinda wondering now if he ate the plant and it's coming out through his skin?

 

[cguarino30]

Good luck. I think your fish should be fine. Generally, when something gets lodged in the body like that, the organs tend to move out of its way unless it's very sharp or moving very fast, which I doubt applies to this plant. Plus, if your fish had suffered an internal injury, I think you would notice a massive behavioral change (flashing, lethargy, gasping, refusal to eat, etc) As long as he's acting normal, I think you can assume everything is going to be ok. Just keep doing what you're doing, and keep a close eye on him.

 

[Morledzep]

WOOOO HOOOO!!!!!!!!! IT'S OUT!!!!!!


he is laying on the bottom of the tank, almost completely still and looks a little deflated now

this is what was stuck inside him.. actually, that is the second half that we didn't know was in there. we initially pulled a piece about this same size out of him when we first noticed it.

 

[fayfay]

....that...mustve hurt like friggin heck....