My Volitans

[sistrmary]

I know that there are a lot of lionfish addicts here, and I'm wondering/hoping that someone can help me out here. I'm a bit worried about my Volitans. It has always been the picture of health, very showy, eating well, etc.
About three days ago, he took in a big mouthfull of sand while eating (he does this fairly often so I wasn't worried) and spit it out (most of it at least) About two hours after he ate, he hit the sand and hasn't come up since. He's still alive, but he's shoving himself through the sand with his pectoral fins and caudle fin and can not swim above it. (I say can not instead of will not because I was even so horrible as to touch him with an algae scraper and he still just shoved himself around really fast) He shows no interest in food (this is a fairly large Volitans who usually eats at least every other day)
I'm not understanding it. I've had lionfish forever and never had this happen. But I've also never had this large grain of sand before. It was an experiment on saving money for the 200gal. So I'm wondering if he ingested too much sand and is unable to pass it?
Any constructive thoughts would be appreciated...

 

[fmarini]

So is he showing any interest in food at all?
I had this happen once when a lion who got a mouthful of CC and swallowed it, I suspected he might have impacted GI tract, or worse.
I would almost guess that this is what is happening to your animal
so a few things, 1) wait for a few more days -see if the fish can process or at least move the substrate into the large bowel.2) entice the fish to eat, if he does this might move the impaction forward. 3) get an Xray to confirm he doesn't have a blockage.
Any outward signs on the lion? I'm hoping he doesn't have a supressed immune system and will come down w/ a secondary parasite
remember that a lion will survive for a long time w/o food so after 5 or 6days w/o food them i would get worried
I'll cross my fingers.

 

[sistrmary]

Thank you...outwardly, he's fine. I've tried taunting him with ghost shrimp, and he looks at them, but...as dumb as this sounds, he looks as if he's pained and then swooshes away. I'll try him again tomorrow. He's still pretty active for being stuck on the bottom...he was propping himself up on a rock earlier, looked like he was trying to climb it. I think that if it is at all possible for him to pull through, he will. I just hope too much damage hasn't been done. He's my baby