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I came home from work last night to find one of my albino corys with his tail stuck in the filter intake. I have no idea how he could have done it since the intake is more than half way up the side of the tank and in an area he never swim near.

Anyway, his poor tail !! The bottom half is gone and the base is red (looks raw). He has been perching himself on a leaf I guess in an effort not to put any pressure on the tail. He is swimming around and eating but seems to be breathing heavier.

Any suggestions ?

If it's gone to the base it dosn't sound to good, add some melafix to keep the wound clean, this might sound awful does the fish look like it is suffering, if so I would put if out of it's misery.

How's the fish doing.

If you have a hospital tank availible I'd suggest removing him gently (if you think he can handle it) and treating with melafix. A hospital tank would be easier to keep the water very very good to prevent any infection from occuring. Melafix has two strenghts that it can be used it, I'd go with the one for handling advanced injuries. I reciently had a gold barb with a very red sore on his side, after a few days of heavy melafix treatment he was compleatly healed (no I couldn't believe my eyes either @first ).

I'd also suggest finding some way of covering the intake, the cory proved that it can be a fish hazard, we wouldnt' want it or worse to happen again .

^_^

Thanks for the advice but I decided to euthanize him last night.

I did move him to a hospital tank and added MelaFix the night I found him but by the time I got home from work yesterday afternoon, the redness seemed to have spread farther up his back and what was left of his tail looked horrible. He was breathing really hard and kept wedging himself between plants or under ornaments so I thought it best.

I am still trying to figure out how he got caught in the intake but I will definitely be covering it up.

RIP little guy.

Sorry you lost the little one ...
I'd suggest either a piece of fish net, or a pair of old (clean but with no traces of detergant) tights or pantyhose..or if you have a fabric store nearby perhaps they'll have a very small strip of tulle or netting that would work.

^_^
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Thanks, Babelfish. It was sad.

I was thinking about tying on a filter media bag (I think that's what it is called) - the one you can fill with something like Ammorid and put inside your filter. Think that would work ?

[span class="edited"][Edited by 2004-08-26 15:03][/span]

megs mom, my they sell sponges, for filters, buy one and stick it right over the intake, it works trust me, my friend did it for fry and none of them got sucked up, and the intake doesnt slow down either

Great idea!
It should work, since they are designed to have the water flow thru them...Only thing you might need to watch out for is the intake being clogged on the outside reducing water flow thru the filter. I've got a filter floss over the intake of a submersible powerhead, you'd be amazed @how quickly it gets clogged .

^_^

Yay - I'm glad to hear an idea will work. I figured it would probably get pretty gross pretty quick so I'll keep an eye on it. Thanks :88)