Ok so I got home and Dorothy (3 yr old fantail, 6") was stuck in her aquarium rock (the decoration type plastic). I didn't know what to do so I grabbed onto the base of her tail and tried to manuver her out but she ddidn't fit. No matter what i did she just seemed to get further in there. So i got the neighbor (husband out of town, of course) and he took a plier type tool and broke the rock and freed her!! But now her tail has red streaks. I should also add she's in a new tank that is cycling and is jsut recovering form the ammonia being too high. I test theammonia yesterday and it was 0 and the nitrites were 2. I salted.

Anyway so now she's swimming around and looks ok other than the red streaks. What should I do? I probably disrupted her slime coat pulling on her and who knows what else. She looked so stressed out stuck in there. Although probably only half as stressed as i am now!!!!!!!!!! Should I add anything to the water--stress zyme, antibiotics, etc? I don't know I jsut feel like I should do something!!

Or is it best to just watch and wait?

She does look like she's swimming a little funny, maybe a little weak on one side? But she's going bakc and forth and up and down Ok. Just looks a little different than before.

Any suggestions are appreciated.

There is one other fish in the tank--3" ryukin who was sitting there by her watching her when i got home--like he wanted to help but didn't know how.

Hi fantailfan1
wow what a horrible ordeal! Im so glad you managed to free her

If your nitrItes are at 2 I would do a waterchange to get them down.
Adding salt is good, it will not only help protect the fish from nitrIte but will also act as a tonic.

Other then that I have no other ideas
Hopefully someone with more knowledge will have a look soon.
I hope your fish is ok and keep us posted.

stress coat put that in to put back her slime coat

Today Dorothy isn't swimming much at all. She's sitting on the bottom in one spot. I put a few pellets in just to see if she eat and she did. She swam around for a bit them back to the bottom by the side of the tank.

She looks pretty tattered after all she's been thru. I did do a water change last night and am going to get some Stress Coat after the kids are up from there naps.

I just don't know what to do for her. She looks so sad . . . .

I tested the water today.

Ammonia 0.0
Nitrite: 2.0
Nitrate:


I'm going to do another water change as soon as I can get back from the store to get Stress Coat. How much of a water change should I do? I've been doing 25%--should I increase to 50%? Also I've been adding 1 tsp salt per gallon--should I increase that? I also added a water conditioner to take out chlorine and detox heavy metals.

I do have the one other fish in there who is acting perfectly normal. We've been cycling now for about 3 weeks. It's a 37 gallon tank with 2 filters--Eclipse 3 (250 gph) and Eheim canister 2026 (170 gph).

I didn't test the ph today as it's alway 7.5. Tap ph 7.3. I feed the fish ProGold once a day.

I am just wondering if there is anything else I can do. Maybe she's resting on the bottom after all the trauma? Like I said she swims around every once in a while but then back to the bottom she goes. Maybe once I add the Stress Coat and her slime coat is back in order she'll feel better? I know I'm grasping at straws here . . . .

unfortunately, pulling and tugging could cause internal injuries....let's just hope she is stressed and that's it...I think the only thing you can do is ensure you have the best water quality possible and then wait...sometimes less is more....

Oh that poor baby!! You did good getting her out. With any type of trauma what is best is making that water safer for her.

With nitrites that high you will need to do many water changes to get it down, I would recommend 50%-75% until the nitrites fall to a better number. That is .25 or under. Now what are your nitrates? This is important because you will need to make sure you don't lower that number to much trying to get down the nitrites.

I would not use any medication in the tank, this will only make the cycle worse. A medicated food such as Medigold from goldfish connection will work to help with any infection the fish may develop.

Next my thoughts on the stress coat. It is a good product to help with the slime coat and condition the water but be aware that it has aloe vera in it and too much of that can build up on the fish causing the gills to "stick" together.
A water conditioner Prime would work better for you doing so many water changes. It is very safe and concentrated.

Keep an eye on her and keep us posted.

Sorry I didn't add the nitrates: btw 5-10. How low is too low?

Hopefully I didn't do any internal damage with my tugging. The way she was in there I could really only hold onto the very base of her tail and I tried not to squeeze or pull too hard (I had visions of coming up with a long tail and no body. I know gross but the mind does strange things when under stress). Of course she was fighting me and swimmng forward as i tried to pull her back the way she went in. But I don't remember exactly what all went down cuz I was so freaked out!! Thank goodness I have great neighbors with kids who've done crazy things for other small animals to save them!!

The good news is she still perks up anytime I put a pellet in the tank. I've tested her a couple times jst to make myself feel better but will be careful not to overfeed.

I'll go to the store now and get some Prime or Stress Coat. Then do a large water change. The nitrites have been at 2 for probably at least a week and a half--despite my frequent (every 2-3 days) water changes. Any recommendations on getting these down?



I'll definately keep you posted and thanks everyone for the help.

Do a water change and then re test in an hour. If they are still high do another water change and so on. You can do mulitples in one day as long as you test the nitrates. Try to keep them at least at 5, if it falls below retest in an hour and see if they are bouncing back.

This is where we are:

I tested the water at 7 pm. Ammonia 0.0 Nitrite 2.0 nitrate 5-10. I did a 50% water change and added Prime and salt.

I re-tested at 9 pm. Ammonia 0.0 Nitrite 0.5 nitrate 5.0. I did another 50% water change and added Prime and salt.

Dorothy did perk up a bit after the water changes. Swimming around more but still resting on bottom quite a bit.

Now 2 questions:

What do I do if the nitrates get below 5?

While Dorothy has been eating quite regularly I haven't really seen her poop very much. Just like about the size of a pellet or 2 of food. Normal looking just not very much. Could she be a bit constipated on top of all of this? I'm going to try a couple of peas next and re-test the water one more time before I go to bed.

Anything else you can think of?

I re-tested the water this morning at 7 am.

Nitrite: 0.25
Nitrate: 5.0
No water change as I had to go to work and those #s looked pretty good.

Re-test 8pm
Nitrite: 0.50
Nitrate: 5.0
50% water change, added Prime and salted.

As far as Dorothy goes she looks GREAT!! Not back 100% but she looks sooo much better. She loved the peas (although I still haven't seen any significant poop--but I'll save that question for another forum).

I will continue to test and change water as necessary.

Thanks for all the help. I think Dorothy will be just fine!!

One more thing: I LOVE MY PYTHON!!!!!!

I am glad to hear she is doing alittle better. You are right on with the water changes, good for you!!

You could try fasting her a day or 2, it won't hurt her, just give her a break to "clean" things out. Then feed her 2 days of just peas. If she is constipated this should help.
It will also help with the cycling of the tank. Hang in there, it shouldn't be too long now.............well at least you should be over the hump just keep at it.

LaurieP--

Yes I believe she is going to be jsut fine. She looks better than she has in weeks!! Now I just have to keep at the water changes (which i am getting rather efficient).

Thank you (and all the others) for all of your very excellent help!! I couldn't have saved her without you!!

YOu are so welcome.

Yeah I can relate with you on getting effiecent, doing it over and over again you can really get it down.