Clown Loach stuck in piece of wood!!

joshuaisblink182

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I have a 1 inch clown loach in my 50 gallon tank. I got a piece of african drift wood the other day. Today I was looking through my tank and could not fine my thirs clown loach. I lifted every rock and could not find him. I eventually found him in a little hole inder my wood that goes from the exact bottom to the tio. I picked it up and tried to shake it but I don't know if he is stuck or just or just hiding. He is moving though.

Please let me knoe what I should do.

Thanks Joshua
 
This same thing happened to my clown loach several weeks ago. Mine got stuck in a small cave ornament i had for my smaller fish. I had to stick my hand in the tank and push him backwards through the hole. he then had a wound around his midsection from being stuck and i am sad to say died several days later. :-(
Try whatever you can to get him unstuck and keep and eye on him. Mine went into shock and quit eating.
I hope yours does well if you can get him unstuck.
Good luck!
 
if i was you, i would keep the lights off for a day or tow and see if he gets out on his own. he will not starve to death and if he gets hungry enough he may figure out how to get out. i have a peice of fake driftwood that my convicts are always getting into and laying eggs. first time i ssaw them in there i panicked. after i figured out that there was no way that i could get it out without causing injury to the fish i let him be. next day saw it swimming around. if he got in there cause he was hiding from someone, then shaking it may cause him to get more scared.

if worse comes to worse try flushing him out with water. using the water to push him back through the opening. you do not want to disturb a fishes slime coat by touching it with your hands. always keep your hands well watered when handling fish.

maggie
 
I bought a couple of clown loaches the other day and today we couldn't find one anywhere,looked and looked,turned decos over and whatnot and it was not to be found.I still have no clue where it was hiding but I saw it in there a little bit later,one seems curious and social but the other just likes to hide out,they appear really skiddish when I stick my hand in there compared to the other fish who are used to me digging around all the time.I'd leave it alone if I were you,you being so close trying to get him out could flip him out and stress him big time -_-
 
I know this is a scary situation, but please keep this in mind.....

99% of the time if a hole is big enough for a fish to get in to, it will be big enough for it to get out of!!!!

Take Maggie's advice....give it a day or so and see if the fish can get out on it's own.

If not, then IMO DO NOT try to get it out by a backwards motion. The fish may extand it's gills and by pushing it backwards you may damage the gill plates or membranes.

If you must assist it, push it forwards, but only if the hole is big enough in the front.

CM
 
Well i guess my advise was very wrong. Sorry joshuaisblink182. But i had no choice in the matter other than pushing my 6 inch loach backwards out the cave ornament. He had been stuck all night and all his slime coating was coming off and stringing off his body. He was breathing rapidly and bleeding from his mid section. There was no way for him to get back out.He had tried to swim forward out the hole so much, it just made him more stuck. So i HAD to assist him. When i pushed him backward he then was stuck inside the cave sideways.He then got himself out ,but was in bad shape. I hope everything turns out alright.
Let us know!
 
amityv,

You advice was anything but wrong!!! In some cases what you ended up having to do is very necessary!!

All I was trying to point out was give it a day or so and IF the fish could not extricate itself, then give a helping hand.

By all means if the fish is stuck then help it!!

One other point this should make is the type of decorations we use in our tanks. We should always pay attention to what goes into the tank to be compatible with the fish we are going to keep.

Just another possible tip....if a fish gets stuck in a decoration that is breakable, then it may be a good course of action to take the item out of the tank, place it in a bucket of shallow tank water and break it gently with a hammer.

I know this sounds like a horrible idea, but if your careful and break it in a way as to not come close to the fish, but allow it room to swim out, it should not harm the fish and will cause less damage to the fish as well.

CM
 
I never thought at the time to use a hammer to break it. I guess i was too freaked out at the time :crazy: Maybe if i had ,he wouldnt have been hurt as bad. I just didnt know what else to do. I could tell he wasnt doing well. My 1st instinct was to help him out asap!
I had a large sea shell also in my tank and one of my calico fantails was stuck in it. After 4 days he finally managed to free himself ,but i had to take the shell out along with the ornament my loach was stuck in. I learned very quickly after the death of my Loach to watch what i put in my tank. Too bad it took the death of my clown loach to learn :(
 

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