Gourami got stuck!

[FishFinatic77]

Last evening when I went to feed my fish, I noticed that my dwarf gourami was not waiting at the surface as usual. I checked around the tank, and suddenly discovered her lodged in a small hole in one of the tank decorations. I have had that decoration (an asian pagoda) for years and have never had a fish too big for the hole try to fit through, but obviously she tried and got stuck. I lifted up the pagoda and ended up having to push gently on her head to get her backwards out through the hole.
She has a big patch of scales missing on her back, I think she may have lost one of her feelers, and she was clearly very stressed after being released. I decided to turn off the tank lights and leave her alone so she could calm down.
This morning I think she's still a bit in shock, and probably in pain too. She's hiding behind some driftwood now, and isn't eating. I'm a little concerned about internal damage, as I'm sure she was thrashing about quite a bit trying to free herself. But for right now she seems okay, she can swim perfectly and keep herself level in the water, so her swim bladder at least is alright.
I'm going to do a water change in a few minutes, I want to make sure the water is really clean while she's healing. Is there anything else I should be doing? Any way I can make sure she recovers from this?

 

[Endlersendlers]

Bump

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I hate it when these things happen. Keep her water clean, watch for signs of infection, and hope for the best.

 

[FishFinatic77]

I hate it when these things happen. Keep her water clean, watch for signs of infection, and hope for the best.

I know, it makes me really sad to see her like this.
I feel like she has improved a little since yesterday though. She ate a pellet this morning and I saw her nibbling some algae a few minutes ago. She seems to be swimming a little better too, a little less shaky than yesterday. I've also seen her pooping a few times.
I think I'm going to do another water change tomorrow, and obviously just keep a really close eye on her. Hopefully she can heal from this and go back to her usual, happy self.

 

[FishFinatic77]

A little update: She came up for dinner tonight! She saw the pellet bag and swam right up for food. She ate quite a bit too, which is really exciting. This morning she only ate one and I had to sink it for her, so it seems she's steadily improving.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

They can be remarkably resilient critters if they can avoid internal injuries and infections.

 

[FishFinatic77]

Update! She's doing great! She's completely back to normal behavior wise. She's energetic, swimming around and exploring as usual, begging for food, etc, and her appetite is back to normal again.
The wound on her back has been healing nicely too.
I'm thrilled she was able to recover and that she's back to her usual self!

 

[AdoraBelle Dearheart]

Update! She's doing great! She's completely back to normal behavior wise. She's energetic, swimming around and exploring as usual, begging for food, etc, and her appetite is back to normal again.
The wound on her back has been healing nicely too.
I'm thrilled she was able to recover and that she's back to her usual self!

This is really lovely to see! I felt sad as soon as I saw the thread title and when reading through the OP, worried for you. You did the right thing in doing the water changes and just giving her time to recover. Sorry about the freak accident though. You didn't do anything wrong, it's definitely unexpected for a gourami especially to try to go through a gap like that, and you couldn't have predicted it.

I love when people update older threads, especially when the update is a positive one! Happy for you, @FishFinatic77, and for anything else in the future googling what to do when a fish gets stuck in decor that find this thread, it's encouraging for them to see that they can sometimes recover.

 

[Endlersendlers]

I’m curious- can scales grow back?

 

[FishFinatic77]

This is really lovely to see! I felt sad as soon as I saw the thread title and when reading through the OP, worried for you. You did the right thing in doing the water changes and just giving her time to recover. Sorry about the freak accident though. You didn't do anything wrong, it's definitely unexpected for a gourami especially to try to go through a gap like that, and you couldn't have predicted it.

I love when people update older threads, especially when the update is a positive one! Happy for you, @FishFinatic77, and for anything else in the future googling what to do when a fish gets stuck in decor that find this thread, it's encouraging for them to see that they can sometimes recover.

Thank you very much for your kind words! I was definitely worried about her for a while too, and I'm so grateful she was able to recover.
I also love it when a thread has an update, so I always try to remember to add updates to any threads I make.
I hope that at the very least this experience will help anyone else that has the same thing happen to their fish.

 

[FishFinatic77]

I’m curious- can scales grow back?

From what I've read, yes they can. I've been keeping an eye on my gourami's scales, and it does look like the some of the scales may be starting to grow back, but I'm not sure. It's definitely going to take some time, I think.