Surgery pending

[bleublaze55]

Hey Forum,

As you all know i do not have any monster fish but i love this site and am totally addicted!
Anyways, i have a small bumble bee cat that has a HUGE balloon-like something on his belly, so big its larger than him. He is still alive (since this morning) and I'm preparing to do surgery tonight on him. My plan is too put him into 1 cup of tank water to 2 drops of Clove Oil to sedate the little guy. Then take this fine needle and aspirate whatever is in the balloon.
In the picture you can see the balloon, its actually even bigger which is why the urgency. As you can see its not in his stomach, more like just under the skin.
I'm looking for any suggestions, tips, or alternative solutions at this point. I have tried Epson salt to decrease it but it is not working. So either way he has a chance of dying. If i attempt an extraction, he would probably have a better chance.

 

[lungfishlover]

why cant you do it in tank? less stress for the fish. just puncture the balloon.

when fishing for big game sometimes the air bladder inflates on the fish and its punctured right there and fish swims off...

 

[knifegill]

Too much clove. That will kill him. Start at around a drop for three gallons and aerate for a few minutes. That will probably knock him out just fine. If his gills slow down too much, get him out of there.

 

[bleublaze55]

ok, i might try just puncturing it and seeing how he does with that. He is pretty small. If he gives me too much of a fight, then ill try sedation. Hopefully i wont have to destroy the entire tank to get him out!!

 

[Water]

Howd it go?

 

[muffywrx]

Yikes. Would also like to know how it went.

 

[Aqualoon]

Yeah, wow...big balloon!