founf fish on ground dried but breathing

[Nethius]

found one of my pictus catfish on the ground, he was stiff, and thought he was dead, but saw his gills moving. i put him back in the tank, held him close the filter out take for a while til he could right himself and move around

he is swimming around now, but he's swimming like he is blind or something. could his eyeballs dry up enough to make him blind?

what do you think his chances are?

i have to run now to, so cant keep an eye on him

 

[gadazobe]

Nice save!

I don't know if his eyes could dry up enough to make him blind, but he could be swimming like he is coz he's really stressed out and it might take a while till he gets back to normal.

Hope he makes it.

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Hate to worry you......

If his eyes turn white then it could be going blind due to oxygen deprivation. Fishes don't have lungs so can't breathe surface air.

I hope your fish survives.

 

[Nethius]

okay got back, he's doing a lot better. not 100% yet but, he's swimming pretty normal, seems to be able to see now. the only thing is that i think his barbs got too dried, they're there, but not working anymore. i think he can grow new ones???

cant believe how well he is doing considering when i found him i picked him up by his tail, and he didn't bend at all!

we'll i'll keep a close eye on him for the next few days, looks good so far tho!

 

[fufanu360]

how did he escape the tank?

 

[lilmolly]

I had this same problem with a male betta I got yesterday. He jumped out and I found him dried up on the carpet under the stand of another tank. I put him back in the water and I noticed he was breathing. I added some stress coat and waited 15 mintues and he looked to be getting a little better. He moved himself on his side. Then I came back in an hour and he was dead. I thought that he would make it but I guess I was wrong. I got a replacement for him today and he just started developing a fungus. Talk about bad luck.

 

[David]

It's amazing how tolerant some fish are of being outta water... if you think about humans, we die after just several minutes submerged, but a fish can be out of water for 15 minutes or more! That's crazy. Anyway now we know always to have a hood on our tanks.

 

[David]

BTW hope your cat makes it, sorry to hear your bad luck.

 

[Nethius]

well he's still kicking today! he seems to be fine now, except his barbs still dont work

kind of a long story as to why there was a hole in the top, if you want to hear it keep reading.

i noticed one of my mollies in my bw tank was not looking too healthy, looks more banana shapped then straight, and noticed some scales sticking out. so instead of keeping him in with my puffers and archer, i wanted him in some sort of qt tank, but i dont have one, but i did have an extra bucket i used for water changes. so filled it with tank water, and used one of the filters on the original tank. but i have 2 nosey cats you see, and i would not doubt them either stickig their paws in the bucket to get the fish, or even drinkning the water. so on my 90 i have a home made top, all glass. one peice in the middle, then 2 peices on either side, and one peice is broke into 2 peices, about 1/4 and 3/4. now this tank holds 3 pictus, 2 angels, and 8 other small fish (cant rememeber what they're called, but look like tiger barbs). i did not think any of these fish were jumpers. so i took that one 3/4 peice and used it to cover the bucket.

well, now i know pictus can be jumpers! i managed to find another peice of glass to cover the bucket.

just glad the little guy made it through! now if i could only figure out what if anything is wrong with my molly??? as he's been in the bucket for about a week, and doesnt seem any different one way or the other?

 

[Phantom Thief]

Some catfish can breathe air. I don't know about pictus though, can they breathe air?

Hope he makes it ok

P.T.

 

[bigfish]

Nice save mate hope he pulls through!!!

Goodluck

 

[Melfice]

I had this same problem with a male betta I got yesterday. He jumped out and I found him dried up on the carpet under the stand of another tank. I put him back in the water and I noticed he was breathing. I added some stress coat and waited 15 mintues and he looked to be getting a little better. He moved himself on his side. Then I came back in an hour and he was dead. I thought that he would make it but I guess I was wrong. I got a replacement for him today and he just started developing a fungus. Talk about bad luck.

My Dwarf Gourami would jump out sometimes as I was feeding my fish. He would jump to get the food and sometimes he would jump out of the tank lol

 

[~FairyAngelFish~]

YEAH NICE SAVE!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Pearlie]

From what I have noticed, Pictus cats will regrow their barbels. I had two in my tank, and noticed one day that one of them had shortened barbels (equal length on both sides, still not sure how that happened...).

The barbels are their eyes however, they use them to 'see' their surroundings, and most importantly to get their food. (Actually, just think of Daredevil). I noticed with 'Stumpy' that he couldn't get the flakes very well since he passed just over them - so, I recommend you get some 'smelly' food and drop it specially for him. I used freeze dried ocean plankton - he picked up the scent fast and didn't need his too-short barbels to find the food. Until your guy gets better, I'd recommend doing the same thing! Obviously with different food.

As for how he's doing, I think he's okay. Just checked in with my lfs where I had to take them and I think they regrew to their original length. Hopefully someone will buy both cats and give them a good home, not to mention a home that's expecting fish that will get 10 inches.

 

[Wisperian]

OH no! poor thing!! maybe some stress coat would help.... I'm sure he's gonna get bettah