I recently had a massive problem with organic compounds and turbidity in my 10 gallon tank and after trying everything to get it to clear, I gave up and decided to do a total water change. While I was doing that, I stored my three baby comets (largest is 1" long) in a large bucket with their previous (cloudy) water. While I was taking a break, the largest of these fish jumped out of the bucket and landed on the floor. When I found him I thought he was dead. He wasn't moving and the side facing up was almost completely dry. his tailfin especially. However, once I flipped him over, he curled up into a kind of pulsing C shape. I immediately put him back in the water, held him in my hand and waited. After a few seconds of gently rocking him in my hand, I saw his gills begin to pulse a little bit. Within about a minute, he swam out of my hand. I have since returned all three fish to their clean tank, but my suicidal one seems a bit slow. The flipper on his dry side hasn't moved since the accident, and there's this big dark patch in the middle of his tail. Any suggestions to aid recovery?

What is the name and size of the filter/s? PetCetera brand, came with the tank. Side mounting.

How often do you change the water and how much? about 3 gallons, once or twice per week

How many fish in the tank and their size? 3, all about 1" long. They're babies

What kind of water additives or conditioners? Cycle (upps levels of friendly bacteria) and a chlorine/chloramine remover / conditioner

Any medications added to the tank? nope

Add any new fish to the tank? no

What do you feed your fish? a real variety. sometimes sinking crumbles, sometimes tubiflex worms

Any unusual findings on the fish such as "grains of salt",
bloody streaks, frayed fins or fungus? not except as described above.

Any unusual behavior like staying
at the bottom, not eating, ect..? : suicide fish staying near bottom most of the time. Not moving left flipper fin (dried out)

WOW... that would have traumatized me.

i've never had this happen, so i can't really help you there. you might be able to find some suggestions on the "horror stories" part of this forum. i think a couple of people have had this happen to them.

i hope your baby comet gets better soon!

Hi Missy,
You did excellent!

Right on! Kudo's to you for proper handling in the circumstances. Keep a eye on the spot and watch for any developments of perhaps fungus or bacteria. Keeping the water pristine is best at this point. You could salt to 0.1%, 1 tsp per gl.

I wouldn't recomend mela or anything like that at this point, no stress coat etc as we don't want anything coating the gills for a time after being out of the water.

I hope he didn't damage the fin too badly. It may have just dried and is sticking, see if you can gently pull it away while holding him in the water. Keep us posted as to how he is doing and if there's any changes or looks like something is cropping up.

Thanks for all the advice and support. So far this morning he seems a bit better. He's swimming faster than last night, although still no movement on that fin.

What kind of salt should I use? All I've got on hand is the food-type variety.

aquarium salt, sea salt (i think it might be the same thing.. not sure).

you can find cartons of aquarium salt at your local fish store or even at walmart for like $3. =)

hope your fishy keeps improving!

Whatever you do do NOT use table salt. It has additives that are deadly to your fish. I recommend Doc Welfish's salt. It's typically very inexpensive and not hard to find.

Do you have all three comets in one 10 gallon tank? Comets get quite large and require 15 - 20 gallons each.... you should consider upgrading your tank or getting multiple tanks

Any salt will do so long as there's no additives, binders or YPS. Canning salt, rock salt, sea salt, kosher salts, water softening salt. Most of those from a grocery store, feed or home improvement store. 99.5% pure or better. Its generally cheaper to get from a regular store then to buy the little milk jugs of Aq salt, which is just plain ol rock salt sold at a higher price from the lfs.

I don't know where Nich lives, but out here those small quart AQ containers are over 5.00 and where as I have a pond, I buy mine in 40 lb bags from the feed store for the same price. I just keep some back for use in my AQ's should I need it.

Generally salt is something that is present in some amount in water and shouldn't be added unless your treating a fish for something.

The fin could be stuck to his side if its the side that dried out, the slime would have dried like a bit of glue. Gently ease it out with your finger nail is it is and away from his body. This needs to be doen to make sure no gunk can build up and cause some bacterial infection. The low salt dosage should stimulate the slime coat a bit too.

I happened to find a bit of kosher salt and it's worked great. Larry moved that fin this morning!! It still looks weaker than the other one, but at least I know there's no permanent nerve-type damage.

I'm also treating for a secondary problem. I think my fishie's got some body fungus going too. Jungle brand makes a pretty good blanket treatment that's good for everything from fungus to early dropsy, and I'm already seeing improvement.

Good to hears there's improvement in the fin. Ok, sometimes salt and meds don't mix. Alway's be sure to check the salt to med ratio, things containing formalin can burn a fish, but is ok in low salt %, but straight formalin and any kind of salt is a no no. Products containg MG, Malachite Green, work best in a darkened tank. Light deactivates MG, so turning off the light and wrapping the tank with towels is a plus to the good there.

WTG! Your doing great!

He seems all better now, and his tail is even starting to grow back. The only concern I have now is that he seems to have lost all his pigmentation on the side that got dried out. It's like I've got the yinyang goldfish... He's acting healthy, eating well and such. Should I be concerned?

Did the scales fall out on that side? Sometimes when scales fall out, they don't grow back the same color. I had an orange fantail who lost a few scales due to ich, they all grew back white instead of orange.

no scales fell out that I'm aware of. Is this something that happens quickly? I mean, I don't watch the little baby 24/7. The tail's growing back white too, so maybe...

Thanks again for all your help.

The side he was laying on when he jumped out might take some time to recover fully, and maybe it will never have the color it has before. But it looks like your little fellow is making it, and he might just have a different coloration than you were used to...

call me crazy, but I like his two-face look. I'll post some pics as soon as I can get a decent shot.