Rewth
03-19-2008, 05:01 PM
this weekend my 'rents came to visit. mostly to see my son who just turned three. right before they arrived i was cleaning my tiger barb tank with a water python. as i'm vaccuming the gravel i siddenly hear my son shriek in pain and my wife yell for me to come quickly. turned out the poor guy and decided to grab one of her hot curlers and burned his finger. he was fine, not even a blister, just a little red mark that some love n attention took care of.
so about 5 minutes later i'm back to the tank and trying to vacuum. however there's practically no suction. very strange. i think that maybe the water pressure changed or something of that nature. unfortunately i find that one of my albino tiger barbs was sucked up the vac. its sitting at the very end of the 40ft long hose, crammed in a space thats less than a centimeter in diameter.
i quickly disassembled the faucet attachment and called for my wife to bring me a glass of the tank water. removing al the componants i realised the fish is quite well stuck. had to run to the vac end and blow through it as hard as i could. popped the little guy out into the glass.
half his scales were missing or frayed. his dorsal fin was pretty screwed up as well. i immediately added a tiny bit of stresscoat (with aloe!) to the glass and manually pressed his scales back flush with his body. he just sat there and was in shock as best i could tell.
about 15 minutes later he was still doing ok so i added him back to the tank (no hospital tank). figured he'd either die shortly afterwards, the other tigers would tear him apart because of his weakness, or he'd need to be euthanized later that evening. and i was almost right. initially the other tigers we're a little rough towards him. didn't outright attach him, but they definitely weren't too fond of him. he found a little spot in some of hte plants to hide and rest.
but, here we are 4 days later. he's still alive. now swimming with the rest of the school and eating just fine. still missing plenty of scales and his dorsal fin is still a bit ragged. but beyond that i think he's gonna be fine. rather impressive if you ask me. durable little fish.
so about 5 minutes later i'm back to the tank and trying to vacuum. however there's practically no suction. very strange. i think that maybe the water pressure changed or something of that nature. unfortunately i find that one of my albino tiger barbs was sucked up the vac. its sitting at the very end of the 40ft long hose, crammed in a space thats less than a centimeter in diameter.
i quickly disassembled the faucet attachment and called for my wife to bring me a glass of the tank water. removing al the componants i realised the fish is quite well stuck. had to run to the vac end and blow through it as hard as i could. popped the little guy out into the glass.
half his scales were missing or frayed. his dorsal fin was pretty screwed up as well. i immediately added a tiny bit of stresscoat (with aloe!) to the glass and manually pressed his scales back flush with his body. he just sat there and was in shock as best i could tell.
about 15 minutes later he was still doing ok so i added him back to the tank (no hospital tank). figured he'd either die shortly afterwards, the other tigers would tear him apart because of his weakness, or he'd need to be euthanized later that evening. and i was almost right. initially the other tigers we're a little rough towards him. didn't outright attach him, but they definitely weren't too fond of him. he found a little spot in some of hte plants to hide and rest.
but, here we are 4 days later. he's still alive. now swimming with the rest of the school and eating just fine. still missing plenty of scales and his dorsal fin is still a bit ragged. but beyond that i think he's gonna be fine. rather impressive if you ask me. durable little fish.