Not a disease, an injury

[DeniseAndy]

Okay, please do not get down on me as I already am very down on myself. I have kicked myself 20 times thinking I could have prevented this.

Anyway, I had to completely tear down my 6g for a good cleaning and redo. I had a pink bar goby and pistol shrimp pair. Unfortunately, when I was trying to get the rock out (I had basically cemented it down) I accidentally cut the pink bar goby. He would not come out and this was one reason I was cutting the rock.

Anyway, looks like I made a clean cut completely taking his tail and more. I believe the cut did not hit the swim bladder or the anal opening. It was after that.

I have him separated to treat him with antibiotics to prevent infection. Does he have a chance at survival? I feel awful. I know I should have just drained it and dumped him out instead of cutting. I just thought this would be less traumatic. Could not have been more wrong.

 

[melypr1985]

Oh boy. I'm very sorry for this! I know you'll do your best for him and that's all that we can do in this situation. I want you to run Kanaplex or Furan2 (you could even do both) and if he eats at all, then make sure he's getting plenty of vitamins in his food.

I want to tell you about an anthia I had who's tail became infected very badly. He lost the whole shot. He spent months hiding in the rockwork and finally reemerged with a healed tail. It's growing back still but it's coming all the way back. It has been about 4 months from start to finish. I tell you this because, assuming the damage isn't to the spine or any internal organs, then he might have a chance. A small one, and it will take a long time, but it's there.

 

[melypr1985]

Can we get a picture?

 

[DeniseAndy]

Thanks. I will try to get a pic, but I do not want to stress the poor guy and he is cryptic. He is hiding in pvc. I will try to make sure he eats. I will run meds too. Poor baby. I have had him over 4 years. I feel terrible.

 

[melypr1985]

Thanks. I will try to get a pic, but I do not want to stress the poor guy and he is cryptic. He is hiding in pvc. I will try to make sure he eats. I will run meds too. Poor baby. I have had him over 4 years. I feel terrible.

Hey. Don't beat yourself up about it too much. I know you feel terrible about it, but there's nothing you can do now except try your best for him. I don't think anything you did was malicious, stupid, or thoughtless. Mistakes happen, now we clean it up.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Thank you again. Here is a pic. This is the good side though. I do not want to bother the poor guy. I will put him in a qt soon. I just wanted him to get into a safe area of the tank. He is in the sump.

 

[Sabellafella]

Thank you again. Here is a pic. This is the good side though. I do not want to bother the poor guy. I will put him in a qt soon. I just wanted him to get into a safe area of the tank. He is in the sump.

=( poor little guy, has he ben eating?

 

[melypr1985]

Oh gosh! That's pretty bad. I'm not sure if that will grow back, but you can certainly give it your best shot. Target feeding will be needed, and extremely clean water coupled with all the other things mentioned above.

 

[Paul B]

Sorry but I do not think a fish with an injury that severe can recover. It is not just risk of infection but a loss of body fluids as well as a good part of his spine. I would also use antibiotics to at least give him a fighting chance.
A person can be bandaged, but that is difficult with a fish.
Good luck

 

[aaron23]

omg ....poor fish, i cant imagine losing my foot... and surviving without being bandaged.
I'm just curious how do you cut a rock did you use some kind of saw??

 

[DeniseAndy]

Thanks guys. I was wondering whether to euthanize, but cannot bring myself to do it. He is in a nice little qt with meds. I will try feeding frequently and making sure to keep water good. I had a wrasse that broke its back and recovered, but this guy was just basically cut in half.

I was actually using bone cutters trying to get under the rock to unattach it from the bottom. This way I could easily get the fish out without draining the tank completely and making it get dumped or stuck in the rock without water. The rock was attached to the bottom because this was my traveling tank and the rock had to be stabilized. I frequently redo the traveling tank to deal with any algae and to change things up for the kids.

This time I had to completely rework it due to a huge, out of control red bubble algae outbreak.

Oh, not eating since happened a couple hours ago.

 

[Paul B]

Would you? He's pretty well injured

 

[DeniseAndy]

I will get the stuff tomorrow to euthanize. Poor baby. I am going to cry tomorrow a lot. I did not want to share this, but thought I would just in case there was a chance of survival. I guessed not, but I could hope. Plus, we need to show that good and the bad of this hobby. Even if it was hobbyist error.

 

[Paul B]

Don't feel to bad I made a lot of mistakes and killed more fish than Starkist Tuna

 

[Humblefish]

If he's eating in QT, I would not euthanize. I would only consider that after he doesn't eat for 2-3 days, and looks like he's going downhill.

 

[DeniseAndy]

Thanks for that. I tried literally putting the food in front of him tonight and he would not bite. I will keep trying for the next 2-3 days if he lasts.

 

[Untamedrose]

The poor thing... and (hug) deniseandy.

 

[DeniseAndy]

He made it through the night. In fact, the wound looks better, but still horrible if that makes sense. He is bright eyed, breathing a bit hard. I tried feeding, he was sort of interested, swam to prop himself under a rock. I am hatching some baby brine for him and will try some frozen until then. Unfortunately, he was so cryptic prior to this, I am not sure what he ate as I feed such a variety.

He is on Metronidazole as it is the only meds I have currently. Cannot seem to find my others. I think I lent them to someone. He is also on Zoe vitamins. Fingers crossed, but I realize he has like a 2% chance. I just don't want to euthanize when he looks so alert.

 

[Humblefish]

@DeniseAndy I highly recommend getting your hands on some Kanaplex and/or Furan-2 to stave off infection. Kanaplex in particular is readily absorbable by the fish's skin. If you can't find any proper antibiotics, I would at least try Melafix.

 

[DeniseAndy]

I will get some. I just used what I had on hand.