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I sit down & look over at the fish tank. I see something I can't believe! After a minute, I decide it's true. There is a fish stuck dangling inside a hole that is in a decoration! I can just see the back half of it dangling out! The fish is a zebra danio. The decoration is made to look like an ocean decoration. Made of a hard rubbery substance, it has two limbs like branches that go upwards vertically next to each other with a slight space separating them. It's out in the open with a few holes towards the bottom of it. The fish is stuck in a hole about an inch up from the gravel.

Poor thing! I know that when fish go to die, a lot of them go head down into a plant or between something......... to be left along I suppose. But this was out in the open, so why in the world did this fish choose a small hole in the open to die in? I call hubby over to see this strange sight too.

I pull the decoration up to remove the dead fish & it wiggles like crazy! It's alive! A better view shows that it doesn't have much room to wriggle out of the hole cause the second vertical layer of the decoration is in the way........ like it ran into a brick wall. I pry the layers apart so it can get free, but it can't cause it is just stuck in the hole! So what do I do?? Do I try to push it on through......... or do I try to shove it back the way it came from?? I hate emergency situations! Aaaahhhhh! I decide to shove it back the way it came from. I touch the nose as if to give it a shove, but it is so wiggly I do no good & what if it bites me...... that will scare me! "Little Fish" the guy that posts on this site has, "Little fish can bite too", for his signature! I holler for hubby to come help. He had went & sat back down thinking I was going to deal with a dead fish as we first thought. He comes over laughing cause I'm afraid of being bitten by a zebra danio. He doesn't want to help cause he's afraid he will hurt the fish. I tell him I don't know what to do......... it doesn't matter.......... just do something......... we have to do SOMETHING!!

I keep the layers spread apart while his hands go into the aquarium. I turn away so I don't have to watch what is about to transpire. A few seconds later it's all over. He pushed it on through forward. He decided the belly could stand to be squished instead of damaging the fins making it go backwards. Hmmmm why didn't I think of that??

The fish swam away but it was badly bruised. This happened last night. The fish died tonight. So if you ever think you're seeing things when it looks like a fish is stuck in a hole, just dangling there, half in & half out.......... look closer........... it may just be true!

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. It's a good story to share because I'm sure it happened more than people realize

-Josh

Sorry to hear of your loss fish patty.
Unfortunately alot of these store bought decorations have dangerous gaps which little fish can squeeze into.

Firstly however.. fish the size of danios cannot bite.. im thinking it will feel more gummy then like teeth..

and secondly im thinking never pull a fish backwards as you may injure their gills as well as their fins..

lucky you had the hubby home!

---

Truth doesn't always win friends but it influences them

Honestly, without much thought I would have probably pulled him backwards as well. It was definitely a great thing your husband was there!

-Josh

Happens fairly frequently actually. I've lost a ram, a tetra, and even an angel that way. Usually they get scared, dive for a hiding place, and jam themselves in so tight they can't come back out. If you dropped something, a door slammed, or anything of that nature it could cause the fish to panic and go scattering for the nearest hiding place. I've actually had more luck pushing them backward. They get stuck because they can't or won't swim backward and they don't fit forward so they wedge themselves in really tight. If they fit forward without injuring themselves they probably wouldn't be stuck in the first place. Better a few scraped scales(a bit of melafix and they often grow back) than squashed internal organs.

Thanks guys! Yeah, good thing he was home. I'm wimpy in those type of situations. I'm always afraid of hurting the animal or person that needs that kind of immediate help. Men just seem to be tougher like that. They just do it!

I'm leery to admit it........... but in the midst of this little drama as we gazed down at this little stuck fish, half in/half out, we started giggling........... as we couldn't believe what we were seeing. It just appeared so ridiculous looking............. I never imagined to see such a sight! I know that fish aren't the brightest of creatures............. but COME ON.......... this was carrying it a little too far.

In the midst of my panicking & our giggling, I have the nerve to turn to my husband in true wifely fashion & say, "This isn't funny!!" If I had a video camera I would have loved to have gotten a video of that stuck fish.

I don't blame the decoration though. In the wild there are rock crevices & fallen trees for fish to get stuck into. I have a natural hollow branch in my tank that the upside down catfish sleep in. I always assumed that if one turned up missing, it might have gotten stuck inside the log.

" I've actually had more luck pushing them backward."
I think I will go with the voice of experience here, although both ways do sound like they will injure the fish. At least fish don't scream while you are trying to help them. That would drive me totally over the edge!

I have an artificial driftwood decoration that my loaches and rubbernosed pleco live in. They like it cause it blocks the light and provides shelter and cover. There are many large holes to git in and out tho. When my wife brought home the tank she foolishly followed the advice of the lfs guy who said that large gravel (1 inch plus) would be just right and work out fine. He obviously never had fish! Aside from being a nightmare to vacuum, within a week one of my harlies had wedged himself into the space between several of these boulders. A few weeks later another had caused a miniature rockslide and got caught up in it. OK, he was just swimmin by like fish do, and a large stone broke loose in the current or something, the gravel was flat and level, so I'm not sure how it fell on him. Both pulled thru alwright, altho the second was swimmin in circles for about 3 days. Just thought it was worth a mention, talkin about fish gettin stuck an all. Sorry about your loss!

Thanks for that story divertran. It's ok about the fish, guys.......... I wasn't particularly found of that particular danio. It was just a little disheartening to get it out in one piece & then it still doesn't make it.

One inch gravel!? You're right divertran.......... those were BOULDERS to your fish! You're three day circle swimmer sounded lucky to recover. Mine just hovered above the gravel the next day. Occasionally other fish would join him......... all just hovering & facing the same direction, as if they were playing Simon Says...........

My neons & glolights do that too......... sometimes hovering, all facing the same direction & changing places as if to get a better view. Sometimes I imagine one turning to another & saying, "What are we looking at?"

Opps.......... there I go changing the subject again. Leave it to me.

( fish patty silently leaves the post closing it behind her )

I had a similar thing happen to my zebra danios too. One got stuck under a rock in my aquarium.

I walked into the room, saw him wedged next to the glass and under the rock... at first I thought maybe he's fine and could get out himself... a couple mins later I dipped my arm in and carefully lifted the rock. Seemed crazy... the LFS employees could hardly believe it too.

If you think about it......... people are supposed to be more intelligent than fish but I've heard stories about people getting themselves stuck.............. so I guess.......... why not a fish?

Most fish can't really swim backwards with any kind of force needed to free themselves, so once they're stuck, they're stuck...

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Good observation superlion! I never really thought about that............ but now that you mention it, the only fish (of what I have) that I ever see go backwards are the angelfish. Not that they swim backwards but more like they just backup a lot. But good point.

I have had several cases of fish getting stuck. When I got my fish tank, I got it second hand and it came along with the fish - two of which were the iridescent sharks at about 8 inches plus each in a 4 foot tank and obviously very jittery.

I had also bought myself some little clowns and had a little house in the tank for them to squeeze into.

One day, I come home from work and switch on the lights in the room and bang, one of the sharks goes into the tiny house and is stuck in there in a circle with it's head and tail almost moving. I lifted the house up and kept turning it around, hoping it's face would come to an opening and it would be able to wriggle out. It did and was healthy and happy except for a few scratches. Obviously, a few days later, the sharks were given away since they were going to get too big for the tank.

I had an angel that got stuck in the space between the powerhead and sponge of a filter, luckily that wasnt too bad and I was able to free it by moving the filter. It suffered scratches too, and since the angel was part black, I thought it was some thread sticking out of the filter - which is also black. THANK GOD I REALISED IT IS A FISH