For all of you who have kids, you know that once a toddler learns how to move, they spend the next year with a bruise on their forehead. Takes awhile for them to register just how much head is above thier eyes. Well, apparently angelfish have the same issue! You cannot be too careful with what you have in your tanks.
I came home two days ago to discover my tiniest angel wedged into quite the predicament. She had gotten herself stuck in a hole of fake driftwood that only her eyes could have fit through. I would never have thought one of these fish would try to swim through there! She had fought so hard to get out that she was stuck upside down with the top and bottom digging into her cruelly. I had to push on her head and pull on the base of her tail to get her out. She did alot of damage. In addition to ripping up lots of scales, she was stuck right at her pectoral fins. She had tore them up so bad I couldn't even see them at first. Their is like one ray left and one of them is stuck pointing up. She can move it, but it stays in this up position. The other seems to have full range of motion, but it takes alot of effort to get and stay vertical. I didn't think she would make it through the night from stress, but yesterday she made the effort to eat. Most of the time, she is lying horizontal at the surface. I worry about that eye, so I turn her over every time I walk by the tank and prop her vertically in a corner which she tries to maintain as long as she can. She is managing to eat and is truely showing the will to live.
I need to move her to a hospital tank to treat for inevitable infection. Do I treat for both fungal and bacterial? Should I salt the water? I don't want to overdo or under medicate her. All advice appreciated. The tank is ready, I just need to know what to put in there. I have salt and a variety of meds on hand.
I came home two days ago to discover my tiniest angel wedged into quite the predicament. She had gotten herself stuck in a hole of fake driftwood that only her eyes could have fit through. I would never have thought one of these fish would try to swim through there! She had fought so hard to get out that she was stuck upside down with the top and bottom digging into her cruelly. I had to push on her head and pull on the base of her tail to get her out. She did alot of damage. In addition to ripping up lots of scales, she was stuck right at her pectoral fins. She had tore them up so bad I couldn't even see them at first. Their is like one ray left and one of them is stuck pointing up. She can move it, but it stays in this up position. The other seems to have full range of motion, but it takes alot of effort to get and stay vertical. I didn't think she would make it through the night from stress, but yesterday she made the effort to eat. Most of the time, she is lying horizontal at the surface. I worry about that eye, so I turn her over every time I walk by the tank and prop her vertically in a corner which she tries to maintain as long as she can. She is managing to eat and is truely showing the will to live.
I need to move her to a hospital tank to treat for inevitable infection. Do I treat for both fungal and bacterial? Should I salt the water? I don't want to overdo or under medicate her. All advice appreciated. The tank is ready, I just need to know what to put in there. I have salt and a variety of meds on hand.
