Emergency room was open on Sun

[jacksonpt]

Woke up Sunday morning to find my Mandarin had something lodged in his mouth/throat. Couldn't tell what it was, but he didn't seem to be doing too badly, so I decided to give him a couple of hours... see if he could get rid of it on his own. No such luck. After about 2 hours, he was clearly having trouble breathing. I decided to take action. I took all the LR out of the tank so he would have no place to hide. I scooped him up in a net, and got my tweezers ready. I carefully held him while I removed the obstruction with the tweezers. Back in the tank he went. 24 hours later, he appears no worse for the wear. My only concers is that I had to touch him. I know I damaged his slime coat, but so far so good.
I'm not sure what he had stuck in his mouth... it looked like a grub. About 1-2mm in diameter, and 4-5mm in length. Cream in color, kinda soft in the tweezers.
Keep your fingers crossed for me. I figure if he's still doing well in a week he should be out of the woods.

 

[crazy4reefs]

wow!! i hope he makes it ok... i have never heard a story like that before, good luck <img src="graemlins//eek.gif" border="0" alt="[eek]" />

 

[bammbamm74]

Good job noticing that thing stuck it it's mouth. They are such pretty fish. I wish you the best.

 

[bonolover]

WOW. I commend you for your dedication to this hobby and the little creatures we take into our care! But I'm really curious - did you do this all under water? Didn't he wiggle a lot and try to get out of your grip? It's funny you brought this up - last night when I was feeding my firefish, he took what appeared to be a BIG chuck of food. I watched, and watched, and was afraid he was choking because it seemed that he couldn't spit it out and he couldn't swallow it either. I was thinking to myself that I would have to figure out someway to get it out before he choked, but then lo and behold, he managed to spit it out after about 1-1/2 minutes. So you can imagine my surprise today when I read your post that someone actually did removed something from a fishes mouth. Again, kudos to you for your dedication.

 

[jacksonpt]

bonolover - I didn't do it all underwater. Once I caught the mandarin in the net. I laid the net across the top of the tank, so the bottom of the net (and the fish) were still in the water, but the top of the net was out of the water. This obviously kept him from getting loose back into the tank. This is when I got my tweezers. I reached into the net and grabbed the little guy, pulled him out of the net (and out of the water), removed the obstruction, and put him back into the net. He was out of the water for maybe 20 seconds. I watched him in the net for about 30 seconds to make sure he was doing ok. Then I let him back into the tank. I let him get his bearings a little bit before placing the LR back into the tank.

 

[broomer5]

Excellent ER work Jackson !!
Very resourceful indeed.
Sounds like you used such a better method than the Heimlich Mandarin Maneuver
Nice job buddy !!!

 

[slk's reef]

Please tell us if he is doing good...Love mandrains

 

[jack the reefer]

he probably ate a bristleworm..the way they swim is weird they can go complete still that's why mine got suck in my powerhead..sad thing...

 

[blueberryboomer]

Great Job Jackson!
How's the Mrs. doing? and The JRT's?
Lisa <img src="graemlins//angel.gif" border="0" alt="[angel]" />

 

[kris walker]

Dumb Mandarin. Maw maw always use ta say, always chu yur grub before ya swallo. Seems like a no braina.
Great job Jackson!
kris

 

[marc42fe]

Hi folks,
I keep a little surgical kit for my Oscars and convicts both of which like to choke on stuff. the thing I use most is a pair of tweezers that I Rubberized with tool handle coating from my local hardware store. tweezers can become a very hazardous item if the fish were to suddenly fight (Learnt the hard way )
Nice job. hows the little guy doing?
Marc

 

[spongebobsquarepants]

HMMMM Saltwater ER?...I'm thinking thursday nights at 8:00 on NBC.