How to tube feed a fish

[spartanman22]

Ya I think at this point he's on his way out so I figured I may as well try. It's such a shame because he was probably my best feeder prior to the tank transfer and he was swimming around fine in his cave yesterday.

 

[Humblefish]

Ya I think at this point he's on his way out so I figured I may as well try. It's such a shame because he was probably my best feeder prior to the tank transfer and he was swimming around fine in his cave yesterday.

Centropyge aurantia is notorious for going on hunger strikes and acting reclusive. Do you have any pineapple sponges in the tank or down in the sump? A friend of mine has one, and it grazes on those all day long. Also likes to pick at nori.

 

[SandJ]

The cath is a little rigid, so you have to worry more about scratching on the way in, verses puncturing anything.

I have not read this thread all the way through yet...and this may be totally irrelevant to this type of tube and not work...but when tube feeding other animals, I have always put the tube in hot water and it softens and is easier to work with.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

With the IV catheters it doesn't work, unfortunately.

There's some newer catheters that would be very hard to tube feed with. With old catheters, you could pierce the skin with the needle inside and then withdraw the needle and move the catheter back and forth. You basically just needed to pierce the vein and the catheter could handle the rest. With the new ones we got at the hospital, you can't withdraw the needle at all. If you try to advance it without the needle, it buckles and gets little holes in it. Quite pathetic actually.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

I have had very bad luck with fox face in that they starved from not wanting to eat. I tried many different nori and other vegetables to no avail.

May I say be verrrrrrry careful if you tube feed a foxface. Their sting is pretty brutal. If my venomous fish refuse to eat, their on their own!!

 

[Russ265]

i did a similar method with clove oil on the amazon puffer fish back when i had them. i wonder if it would do the same....

 

[Lionfish Lair]

i wonder if it would do the same....

If the clove would work the same as the MS-222? Is that what you meant? Yes, it does the same, if that's what you were referring
to.

 

[Russ265]

If the clove would work the same as the MS-222? Is that what you meant? Yes, it does the same, if that's what you were referring
to.

yeah. i just performed the experiment on a purple tang. worked well but i heard ms-222 blocks pain recepters. something clove oil does not.

i can get clove oil from walmart though.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

This isn't a painful procedure, so clove would be acceptable. I'll look up the mechanism of action of the clove, but it pretty much knocks them out, if you do it right. I don't believe it acts only as a paralyzer, so I'm not sure how they would retain consciousness/pain awareness.

I've used clove all the time for tube feeding and other procedures.

I'll be back, hopefully with info in hand.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

It's completely appropriate to use clove oil during painful procedures/surgeries, as it is an anesthetic agent.

"Javahery, S., Nekoubin, H., & Moradlu, A. (2012). Effect of anaesthesia with clove oil in fish (review). Fish Physiology and Biochemistry, 38(6), 1545-1552."

 

[Humblefish]

@Lionfish Lair I'm so glad to have your input in the fish disease forum.

 

[Russ265]

It's completely appropriate to use clove oil during painful procedures/surgeries, as it is an anesthetic agent.

"Javahery, S., Nekoubin, H., & Moradlu, A. (2012). Effect of anaesthesia with clove oil in fish (review). Fish Physiology and Biochemistry, 38(6), 1545-1552."

thanks for that info.
mine wasnt knocked out because i only went by my fresh water experience with amazon puffers.
i ended up tripling the dose to get him sedated and it took a good 5 minutes.

the same scary moment occurred in the recovery tank though.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

It's KILLER waiting for them to wake up. I've used it to put fish "down" before, so it'll definitely kill them too. It's hard to kill "healthy" fish, but it's not so difficult when they are sick and weakened. If you face them into some flow, like from a pump, they shake it off a little faster.

 

[Lionfish Lair]

@Lionfish Lair I'm so glad to have your input in the fish disease forum.

I have a weird skillset, right? I don't know the first think about the common fluke, but I've tube fed fish.

 

[Russ265]

I have a weird skillset, right? I don't know the first think about the common fluke, but I've tube fed fish.

need pointers. id be afraid to do it, even watching you effortlessly perform the procedure, i shudder at the thought.

probably make the wife do it. lol

 

[Lionfish Lair]

I'm going to say, I don't know how easy it is..... I'm a preemie nurse, I handle these pieces of equipment every single day so they are like extensions of my fingers. Some of my patients are no bigger than my fish and my last patient weighed 380 grams, so my world is a very very tiny one. My tubes are so small, we have jeweler's loupes hanging all over the place so we can see them. If someone had big ole mitts and didn't have a delicate nature, well, I'm not sure how it would go for them the first few times.

 

[new2mac]

I am not sure what to think ... watching the vid the thought that kept coming to my mind was "poor fish..."

 

[Motoxer310]

What exactly is being fed? I have a harlequin tusk that I have been force feeding for about a month. He's surviving but this may be a more viable option for him

 

[Motoxer310]

Nvm...didn't read after the video!

 

[CarterJ]

I've used clove all the time for tube feeding and other procedures.

What concentration of clove oil do you use?
Also what volume of food do you administer?