ant stuck in tiger barb

[Xcric]

so i've got these six tiger barbs, and it looks like one of those big black ants fell into my tank and one of them attempted to eat it
well, they're still babies, and now it looks like the ant is stuck half in and half out of the barb, its mouth is permanently stuck open with the legs of the ant sticking out of its mouth
i was wondering if theres anything i can do for this poor little fish, or is is destined to die?

 

[smithrc]

it'll eat it in the end (how long has it been in there?)

if not - i'd catch the fish in question and pull the ant with a pait of tweezers.

 

[nightlife20]

i agree with the abouve, i had to do this with a dannio, it had got a small peice of bark (off the driftwood) stuck at an upright angle, it was like that for about 2 hrs untill i decided to do somthin about it


the danios ok now tho

 

[Xcric]

its been stuck there for about 12 hours now, i tried the tweezers thing but the only pair i had was too big for the fish, and i don't want to pull the ant out, only to rip the things mouth apart doing so..
so i guess if its still there by tomorrow morning i'll go to the store and get a smaller pair of tweezers and try that..

 

[daza]

I'm wondering if you have a small enough pair of scissors to cut the ant in half or in pieces, it might give the fish a chance to start chewing.

 

[nightlife20]

nail scissors and surgical tweezers are best, much much smaller at the ends

 

[fufanu360]

ahahha silly fish, when i feed my oscar crickets it takes him about an hour to get it fully eaten! but he finishes them

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Personally, I wouldn't risk it. Catching your fish will surely risk stressing it out, fin damage and slime coat loss. No, I wouldn't risk it.

How about treating the fishes, and Tiger Barb, with some live food eg Blooworms, daphnia, and then see if that'll dislodge the ant either out or into into its gullet?

 

[canarsie11]

thats first good idea I read

 

[Xcric]

Personally, I wouldn't risk it. Catching your fish will surely risk stressing it out, fin damage and slime coat loss. No, I wouldn't risk it.

How about treating the fishes, and Tiger Barb, with some live food eg Blooworms, daphnia, and then see if that'll dislodge the ant either out or into into its gullet?

thats a really good idea..i guess i'm off to the fish store then, i don't have any live food on hand

the tweezer thing won't work anyway, the mouth is too tiny

 

[smithrc]

thats first good idea I read

how will it eat bloodworm when it has an ant stuck in its mouth?

I had a picture in my mind, of the ant half sticking out of the mouth of the fish.
If its not then i also wouldn't want to poke about with tweezers.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Up until recently, I had three Tiger Barbs myself. I know how voracious they are when feeding time comes around. I've often seen them trying to fit as much as they can into their mouths.

If the Tiger Barb, in question here, is as voracious then hopefully, hopefully, it'd be possible for the ant to be knocked out or eaten. Trying this method first is much more safer than the 'tweezers' option.

 

[Xcric]

alright, so i tried the live foods idea..and while the other fish in the tank seem to be really happy with that move, the one with the ant problem is no better off

it wouldn't eat, even tried seperating it from the others so it would have the chance to eat the food right in front of it, but that didnt' work either

the ant is much too far in there now to pull out with anything, though it does seem to be slowly moving further into the fish, so hopefully it'll be eaten compltely shortly...

though on a side note, the fish is hiding and listing more and more...

i suppose all i can really do now is wait, and either it'll swallow the ant and have a nice little meal, or it'll die...

stupid ravenous barb...

anyone have any other ideas?

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Hate to worry you further but some ants have stingers that can contain toxins to repel anything that might want to eat them. Your Tiger may be 'suffering' from this.

I think perserverence is the answer here. I don't think there's anything anyone can do here. Even saying that the ant is heading in the 'right' direction, may not help you or your fish. Let nature takes it course.

Good luck and all the best.

 

[Xcric]

bleh...hopefully the little guy gets better soon..i'd hate to have him die, especially if it was a slow painful death which this will inevitably cause if it kills him...

its a horrible thing for me to say, but at least tigers are cheap to replace...i just hope it doesn't come to that...

damned ants, always ruining everyone's fun...