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I know this is very long, but if you read it you will not be disapointed, I promise.

Many of you may have read my other post about the missing fish, if not to make it short, one of my fish disapperaed over a week ago I thought he was just hiding, Tonight I found him, he was hidding inside a peice of fake driftwood, I tried to remove him but only suceeded in wedgeing him deep inside of it, in a place that I could not reach and he could not get out of. After several minutes of tring to shake him out, and reimersing him several times, I realized that I would have to destroy a $30 peice of driftwood, I quickly got a hammer and a screw driver, and chipped away at the fake driftwood slowly so that I would not injure te fish. I finally removed him and placed him back in the tank however he sank straight to the bottom where he did not move from, I realized that do to the conditions and strees he had passed felling horrible I held him as he layed motionless. I decided that I would hold him near the out put of my filter, the force of the water coming out actully pushed his mouth open, after more than 10 minutes I realized that my actions might be invain. As I removed him form the tank where I had been holding him the hole time, I noticed a slight movement, a few second later another one he was trying to breath , I quickly held him back under the output, where he remainded for the good part of 1/2 an hour, he finally began to swim, but had trouble staying right side up, i held him right side up and moved him threw the water, he began to swim on his own, but spent more time on he bottom than swimming, the other fish began to follow him, so i moved him to a breeding net, he is still very slow, and I am not sure he will make it till morning. He has suffered some injurys do to his confinement but other wise is in good health I addes some water conditioner that helps to restore the slime coat, and I dropped a few flake in the breeding net.
It is amazing that a fish confined for over a week, stressed to death, dead, and finally back to life.

I really hope he survives I will try to post again tommorow
thanks

It aws worth it poor fishy great job life guard/:'

Well I'm crossing my fingers for your little buddy, hopefully he pulls through!

Unfortunately this isn't even the first time I've heard of driftwood, fake or not, posing a problem for fish to get stuck inside. It is something that can pose a danger to one's fish, so hopefully stories like this will make people pay more attention to the decorations they are buying.

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The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

goodjob=)

That truely is an amazing story. I hope you and you fish recover from this obviously tramatizing experience.

EEEK!
How big is he???
One of my platies tends to hide in a hollow bit on the top of my driftwood.

He is about 3-4 inches long

Well it is morning, after I posted last night he started o go down hill again. I turned my output to face his breeding net, and I added an airstone to keep he water cirulating threw his net. He is still alive but not out of he woods.

QUICK QUESTION
I have a 10 gallon tank that I breed my guppies in should I put him in there, However the water is kept a little warmer, and the parameters are slightly different. I not sure which is a bigger stree/problem the differnce in water, or beening confined to a breeding net?

oz196,

What a good fish papa you are

I don't know what is the better thing to do at this point, I am sure the fish is stressed quite a bit and with another move you could put him over the edge. If the tank that he is in is not bad then I would say you should leave him there. He might very well have suffered internal injuries as well and in that case he just might die, no matter what.

Hang in there,

Ingo

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Proud Member of the New Jersey Aquatic Gardeners Club

I'm glad to hear that he has made it through the night. Please keep us updated.

I'm glad he made it, good fishy lifeguard, you deserve a medal!

Also glad he is 3-4 ins. My platies are just over 1, and just under 2, and i have only 1 tank, so i do not want them to end up like that!

Wow! I'm so glad you found him! I really hope he makes it. I know they say not to add salt to a planted tank, but it often will help with healing, resistance to infection. Adding the water conditioner helps with the slime coat to relieve stress in fish as well. Both those things are great! Also fish handle stress better with the lights low or off. Turning the tank light off for the day and just having the room lights on may help him to deal with the stress. It should not adversely affect the other fish or plants that may be in the tank. And it would only be for a couple of days.

You are a hero among fish keepers!/:'

"If you're afraid you'll make a mistake, you won't make anything."
-Family Circus

Thanks for posting this story Oz196... a lot of people can learn from your experience! I have not had a problem of this nature *yet anyway, but, at least I know something can be done!

Good Job!

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"it's the neck, it creaks under the weight of too much heavy thinking."

Good luck with him, and I hope he pulls through, and I would like to say he is out of the danger zone, but I can't be sure. Keep us posted though, I really hope he makes it!

Fish are like potato chips. . .you can't have just one

The missing fish is still alive, he has been moved to a 10 gallon tank. I am in the process of fixing all of my decor, I took the smashed up driftwood to the pet shop and made them replace it, I got a different style peice one without holes, I am using silicon to patch up the hole in the other peices, so that the fish can't fit in them. Next week I will return him to the big tank. He is constantly hiding now, I hope he will out grow out of it, but I am going to rearange all of the decor so that he will have a new start. I will post again in a few days
thanks