I've got a female Bolivian ram (adult) that looks like she is choking on something and is quite distressed. Her mouth is wide open and lips protruding very unnaturally (normally she has a small, downturned mouth), and when I look inside when she's facing me straight on, I think I can see an obstruction maybe about 5mm inside her mouth. I think perhaps a whole food pellet - one of the cylindrical-shaped ones about 2 mm across & maybe 5 wide - its the only thing I can think of and she was feed this yesterday. Every now and again she gives a kind-of coughing movement (I've seen other fish use this before & manage to dislodge obstructions, so assume this is what she is trying to do).

She appeared first in this condition last night, but as I wasn't sure if there was anything I could do that wouldn't stress her out more, I left her to she if she could get it out herself, but I found her still in the same state this evening on arriving home from work.

Has anyone had this happen before and successfully saved their fish? I understand you can use tweezers, and have read that you can use clove oil to keep the fish calm, etc but certainly don't want to stress her out any more than is necessary. Any help would be very appreciated - its horrible seeing her so uncomfortable.

Thanks in advance.

If the Pellet etc hasnt dissolved by now, I would take her out, hold her in yur hand and get the tweezers and carefully take out watever it is.

Thanks Mystic, but won't she wriggle like crazy? I don't want to end up injuring her with the tweezers or anything...

It sounds like it may be a hard job but it isn't really, you'll probably feel more stress than the fish If you leave the fish in the net and just expose her head it'll be easier to hold her.

Sorry to hear your problem.

I'd try the tweezers, though I haven't tried it myself.

Have a look at this video.....it shows how to strip fry from an African Cichlid and you'll see how the fish is handled.

http://www.cichlid-forum.com/videos/stripping.php

Thanks all - am off to get a nice small pair of tweezers - will report on how we go.

Meant to say to MarkLB - thanks for the link to that video - very helpful!

Well, we got some clove oil & tiny tweezers, knocked her out (in 1 drop of clove oil per litre of water) and attempted to remove the stuck stuff. However, the stuff was quite soft and so we weren't able to remove much of it – partly because it was so soft and partly because it was so far down inside her throat. And we didn't want to keep her sedated for too long, either.

Afterwards, once she had woken up, she didn't appear much improved, but I noticed that she did start to cough out very tiny amounts of the stuck stuff (which I think indeed must have been one of those food tablets - grrr!). We decided to leave her for the night in a guppy trap to recover & rest, and thought that even just our poking around in her mouth might have been enough to soften the material and help her to dislodge it anyway.

In any case, this morning she seems all better - her mouth looks normal and her throat clear (if a bit too pinkish and sore looking!). So maybe our little fish surgery session helped or maybe the food finally softened enough by itself for her to swallow or cough it out, but either way, I think she's on the mend now!

Thanks for all your advice.

Phew!

Wow, well done. I can't imagine it would have been an easy thing to do. Glad to hear she is ok.

oh wow. interesting stuff. good on you for saving your fish. :bounce:

Great job!! well done :bounce:

so glad to hear she's ok - glad the clove oil worked!

Well done pink_fish