Tat mauling

[Industrial]

I woke up this morning, to my tat doing the death spirals. He looked like he got beat up pretty bad. I come back home an hour later and then he was laying on the bottom. While I was looking at him, my other tat swam by and started mauling him, so I smacked the glass and started hitting the other one with the algae brush. I don't think the tat is going to survive this, but I didn't want the other one just fanging him while he is dying.

Now the one that was beat up is swimming off balance, but isn't quite laying on the bottom or doing the "death spirals" anymore, but he is still not looking too good.

 

[Rukusbelow]

I woke up this morning, to my tat doing the death spirals. He looked like he got beat up pretty bad. I come back home an hour later and then he was laying on the bottom. While I was looking at him, my other tat swam by and started mauling him, so I smacked the glass and started hitting the other one with the algae brush. I don't think the tat is going to survive this, but I didn't want the other one just fanging him while he is dying.

Now the one that was beat up is swimming off balance, but isn't quite laying on the bottom or doing the "death spirals" anymore, but he is still not looking too good.

Separate it, treat it with melafix & hope for the best. Goodluck

 

[Piscine]

I think you could easily save that fish. I do know that spanking your fish for beating up on other fish is not effective in preventing future scuffles. You are going to end up with one dead fish and one fish who hides from you all day because you tried to spank it with an algae brush.

 

[krichardson]

Hope he/she pulls through....I like tats.

 

[Industrial]

I think you could easily save that fish. I do know that spanking your fish for beating up on other fish is not effective in preventing future scuffles. You are going to end up with one dead fish and one fish who hides from you all day because you tried to spank it with an algae brush.

I only did that to scare him. Tats seem to stay spooked for days if you spook them. I just wanted him to leave the other one alone since it couldn't even swim straight.

Right now I took the aggressor out and put him by himself in a 20 long. Until the other one can heal.

The one that was beat up is still having trouble swimming straight. He keeps falling sideways and does occasional barrel rolls and flips. I am going to keep the water clean and remove most of the duckweed tonight so the filters can aerate the surface more and he isn't spooked.

 

[koltsixx]

That sux man, I really hope he pulls thru for you. I would seperate him though and put him in a tank with the lights off so he gets as little stress as possible. Because comm's even when the aggressor's been removed still have plenty of stress. There's lots of chance at spooking due to other fish's sudden moves or just because the Tat was mauled he may be stressed by any tankmates. Besides do you know for sure who was responsible for the initial attack? Though trust your judgement if you think he's too weak to survive being moved cross your fingers and hope for the best.

 

[Industrial]

That sux man, I really hope he pulls thru for you. I would seperate him though and put him in a tank with the lights off so he gets as little stress as possible. Because comm's even when the aggressor's been removed still have plenty of stress. There's lots of chance at spooking due to other fish's sudden moves or just because the Tat was mauled he may be stressed by any tankmates. Besides do you know for sure who was responsible for the initial attack? Though trust your judgement if you think he's too weak to survive being moved cross your fingers and hope for the best.

I am not expecting him to survive and I am just trying to make his death stress free. Today he is laying upside down on the bottom breathing slowly. The other fish in the tank are relatively sedentary, my cats lay on the bottom all day, my glass headstanders hang out in the najas grass, my SA Pike characin hangs out by the filter outlet on the other side of the tank and the rest of the fish stay in their caves.

At first it honestly looked like something tried to eat him, but the tats are the largest fish in the tank. The only other fish that could have considered attacking him was the carapo knife, but the other tat actually hangs out right outside his cave so he would have also been attacked. Plus the carapo has bitten most of my fish and never inflicted any damage.

These tats were really waspish towards eachother. Sometimes they would get in actual fights where both of them got chewed up. I figured they would get over it if I kept them together. Normally fights would end up with a torn fin at most.

 

[Industrial]

Update: The tat is still alive, but hasn't really moved for the past day and a half. Today I tried to gently lay him on my hand close to the spray bar in an area of gentle current hoping it may help him regain balance or give him more oxygen. After about ten or fifteen minutes though I let him go.

I cannot believe how long he has been in this state of being on the verge of death. I work at a fish store and fish never live for more than half a day when they are on their last leg and unable to swim properly. It feels like if I would have done something early on when he was still trying to barrel roll or flip it could have helped, but I have never seen a fish live much longer after that point.

I don't want to euthanize the tat right since even though he would go quickly, being pulled out of the tank it's last few seconds of life must really suck. Everybody is leaving him alone right now. Tonight I may put a big net around him if he is still alive to prevent the raphael cat or carapo knife from trying to nibble on him.

 

[Industrial]

Final update, he died last night.

 

[valderi123]

sorry man