Well, what can I say... Our fishes are really full of surpises! Every day they think of something new :lol:

Just walked up to our Guppy tank and noticed one of my favourite females (who is also pregnant at the moment) with something too large in her mouth! I thought that it was the usual case of excessive appetite but we quickly realised that it was a little stone in her mouth!!!

Here's what it looked like (best shot I could quickly take):

We promptly decided that something had to be done and prepared the tools for a little surgery intervention: Needle, wet papertowel on top of towel, net.

I wetted the papertowel, the net and my hands with water from the tank. Copped her out of it and REALLY gently hold her down with my thumb on her tail. I tried to get behind the stone from the side of her mouth but instead of getting it out I would have pushed it deeper in!

I have really calm and still hands, so I decided to VERY VERY carefully insert the needle from her gills in order to push the stone out from behind. This did the trick and was done without harming the fish - we hope! :-?

This is a shot of the operation:

This obviously all happened very quickly - less than 40 seconds out of the water!

Here's the corpus delicti:

Indeed a small stone she probably would have died for!

We will keep an eye on her but she's been fine so far (this all happened in the last 30 minutes :lol:)! She obviously looks a bit stressed now but I am hoping she'll be fine :-?

Just wanted to share... no idea if we did the right thing!

Dan

I hope mommy-to-be does well!

I often wondered what to do if they did get gravel stuck in their mouths! Especially the goldfish, I find they are constantly picking it up and spitting it out...wondered what would happen if it DIDN'T come out!

Of course, I didn't even know you could keep fish out of water (oh my almost sounds like a part of a terrible pun :-? ) at all other than to go from bag to tank sorta thing

What made you think to go through the gill? I have to see if I can find more on fish anatomy... :oops: ...does the gill open right up to the mouth????

It's been a couple of hours now and she seems to be doing fine again. We'll feed them in a bit and hope that she's going to be hungry again :-?

As far as I know, fish can last surprisingly long out of the water - if I remember correctly under a minute is usually fine (not sure!). Some can even breath air, like gouramis but obviously being out of the water is not benefitial to any fish.

As I love fishing as much as fish keeping (weird isn't it! :lol:) I know quite a lot about fish anatomy - even though I have to admit that I hate cleaning fish! If you ever buy a fish to eat - just have a look at it more closely and you'll see that the gills are just under two 'lid-type-of-things'. When out of the water the 'gill-lids' (no idea what they are called!) of a living fish are usually open as the fish is trying to pump water through them. So i inserted the needle past the gills without hopefully damaging them. Describing the gills in words is not very easy... best is to have a look at a fish you buy as food or just ask if you can have a look at one in a fish monger's shop if you don't eat fish.

Just for the record, I love fish and respect every single fish I catch as much as I respect the ones I keep!

I'm not much of fish eater...never have been! Next time...next summer...when friends go fishing I'll have a look at one!

Oh...and I love fishing too...but haven't been fishing in years Have to admit though...still wouldn't put a worm on a hook...but then I won't pick up worms at anytime

kim and dan- do you mean operculum (sp)? thats like their gill covers, the bit you see on the outside, its hard to explain haha.

ive read that if you find a fish thats been out of water less than an hour you can put it back in water, move it backwards and fowards to get the water flowing past the gills again and it could bring them back to life, of course im sure thered be extenstive gill damage if this was true

I didn't know it was possible at all to keep fish out of water for longer than a .... couple of seconds...until I came here!

Some fish will survive a few hours out of water Caper. My bristlenose certainly managed over 2 hours when I stripped that tank and didn't see him in the huge clump of plant I hauled out and left on a tray on the floor. That was about 5 years ago and he is still alive and well back in the tank.

http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/a-dang ... t9818.html

nice job

they even look like surgens hands

kim and dan- do you mean operculum (sp)? thats like their gill covers, the bit you see on the outside, its hard to explain haha.

Thanks sharn! That's exactly the word I was looking for

Jimmy: Wow, that's an impressive story there! Glad the fish made it!

nice job

they even look like surgens hands

:lol: Next time I'll put on one of those green suits with the matching green hat and a mask! :lol:

By the way, our Guppy is doing great! :bounce: She eats and behaves normally again! And she's still pregnant and looking really healthy again! :bounce:

Great news...congrats to the surgeon :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

:bounce:

glad to hear your girl is doing well.

the same thing happened to me a few nights ago. one of my rosy barb girls had a stone stuck in her mouth. i caught her, in the net, to get a closer look. Mark suggested squeezing her, gently, but there's something about squeezing a fish that scares me.

fortunately she got it out herself. i was in the chat room that evening and caryl told me what you had done and the first word out of my mouth was "OUCH!"

now that i have read the thread, i know its possible to do. hopefully it will never be something i have to do, but at least i have something to use as a reference if it happens again

congrats on the succesfull operation guys. gud luck with her bubbas

**EVIL**

:bounce:

Thanks for the compliments Tsarmina and evilknieval69

Just a quick update - she's still doing great and it looks like she'll be ready to spawn very soon! :bounce: :bounce:

:bounce: :bounce: :bounce: