I "saved" my bala today!

[Lady Hobbs]

I was doing my water changes and cleaning the gravel and taking my time about it. Stopping for a coffee and cigarette and tinkering around all the while. I was all done, had my stuff put away and thought I might check on the sponge filter just to see if it appeared dirty. (checked it 3 days ago and don't know what made me do this)

Here is my female bala shark, upside down jammed behind the uplift tube, head in the gravel from struggling and the male bala jammed in right behind the female. This male follows her everywhere and apparently knew she was in distress.

I get them out of there and the female is about a goner. She sinks to the bottom while the male is going nuts in the tank. I bring her to the top for some air several times and she just sinks again and won't move. I get her again, move her back and forth and back and forth at the waters surface for maybe 10 minutes. She flipped her tail a couple times and that was it. She is fine and swimming happily.

The D*** sponge filter is gone.

[f1oored]

Hobbs, savior of fish! That is a good story.

[Lady Hobbs]

Guess it goes to show sometimes we just can't give up on them.

[Glasstapper]

That's so sweet, hobbs. Good thing you checked the filter, huh? I'm sure she appreciates it.

[Lady Hobbs]

She got her feathers ruffled a bit. I wasn't too careful as I was too busy being fast. :)

[crackatinny]

How can you tell the difference in a male and female Bala

Glad to hear you saved yours

[Lady Hobbs]

Size. Females are larger bodied. I originally had 3 but these two were inseparable from the get-go and the other remained alone all the time. I ended up putting him down when he got ill.

It's strange that fish do that. I just got 3 new angels that are very tiny. Two stick together constantly and one is off by himself hanging in the air bubbles or on the other side of the tank. You'd think wee babies would hang together.

[Jacquie]

Well done ^_^
Next time my fish are in danger, I'm gonna ask you for help to save them

[kimmers318]

Good job Hobbs....alls well that ends well!

[gwenkat]

Great story. Glad everything is ok.