Injured black phantom tetra in safehouse -- WWYD

[Gypsum]

About a week ago, one of my male black phantoms was aggressively pursuing one of the females, and the female crashed into the filter outtake and was injured. I was watching them, and it all played out in front of me. She struck the filter at speed and suddenly started swimming ponderously and her head would shake from side to side, almost like a seizure. Male continued to relentlessly chase, and the female was trying to squish herself under logs and plants to get away. If anything, the male got more aggressive once the female couldn't swim properly. I caught her and put her in my other tank, hoping she could rest and recover. No tetras, but the fish in there (killis, cherry barbs, c. habrosus, otos, and apistogramma borellii) leave her alone. She's been eating, although not enthusiastically, and continues to show the seizure movement when swimming at any speed.

Not sure what the best course of action is. Obviously having one tetra in a tank isn't ideal, but if I move her back, the males will probably chase again. There are eight black phanton tetras -- four males, four females. Do I move her back anyway and hope for the best? Euthanise? Leave her where she is and hope she improves? Move her to the hospital tank and treat with....something?

 

[Colin_T]

She probably has brain damage from the impact and will need a month or more to recover, assuming she ever recovers completely.

As long as the current tank inhabitants don't harass her, just leave her where she is for a couple more weeks and see how she goes. If she doesn't improve over the next month, you can either euthanise her or leave her in the current tank and maybe add a few females and 1 male black phantom to go with her. But monitor them if you do.​

 

[BoningKnife]

Completely agree with Colin.
If euthanasia does end up being the kind option, I personally would suggest the freezer method. It takes a while but is allegedly painless and once the freezer is closed you can just leave it much longer than necessary meaning your not having to watch the process. I have tried the alcohol method in the past and although it's fast, there was a lot of thrashing and stuff before death. Not a method I would use again personally, it just didn't seem painless nor dignified to me.
Just to clarify, in almost twenty years I have only euthanized three times, it's better avoided but there are occasions where its the right thing to do.

 

[Essjay]

Just for reference if you ever have to euthanise a fish, these are well worth reading.

Painful fish deaths? You might be guilty!

Painful fish deaths? You might be guilty!

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk

Time to rethink anaesthetics?

www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk

 

[Gypsum]

Yeah, cheers Colin.

When I've had to euth a fish, I've used the clove oil method. I think I would be too squeamish about inflicting blunt force trauma on a fish and would probably screw it up. But ideally, I would like to not have to euth this tetra. Fingers crossed it recovers in the 'safehouse' tank.

 

[JuiceBox52]

To the best of knowledge the freezer method is inhumane

 

[BoningKnife]

I was under the impression, that in very simple terms, it slows the fishes system quickly enough to avoid any pain. Just slows the system until they die. Being neither a fish nor a vet I'm not one hundred percent but to my knowledge and to this moment it's a pretty humane way of doing it.

Edit, just to add, if I'm wrong then my mistake and obviously don't do that. However as said, so far as I'm aware at this moment in time I'm not wrong.

 

[Essjay]

Taken from my first link

"Dr. Lynne Sneddon of the Institute of Integrative Biology directs my attention to the work of Monte Matthews and Zoltan Varga, who have published papers on the subject of chill euthanasia. She notes, “ice must not be allowed to touch the body to prevent ice crystals forming.” It is considered that if the body develops crystals inside before becoming unconscious, then this could be pain inducing. "

and

"Dr. Peter Burgess has some reservations regarding the cooling approach. He draws my attention to Ross and Ross’s book, Anaesthetic and sedative techniques for aquatic animals, where he points out that "slow cooling is thought to give very incomplete analgesia," and suspects that this method has the potential to cause pain. "


I used to use the freezing method until I read the article in the link, but I no longer use it.

 

[JuiceBox52]

Taken from my first link

"Dr. Lynne Sneddon of the Institute of Integrative Biology directs my attention to the work of Monte Matthews and Zoltan Varga, who have published papers on the subject of chill euthanasia. She notes, “ice must not be allowed to touch the body to prevent ice crystals forming.” It is considered that if the body develops crystals inside before becoming unconscious, then this could be pain inducing. "

and

"Dr. Peter Burgess has some reservations regarding the cooling approach. He draws my attention to Ross and Ross’s book, Anaesthetic and sedative techniques for aquatic animals, where he points out that "slow cooling is thought to give very incomplete analgesia," and suspects that this method has the potential to cause pain. "


I used to use the freezing method until I read the article in the link, but I no longer use it.

I also used it but stopped a few years ago

 

[Retired Viking]

I hope your fish recovers.

 

[Gypsum]

Me too. She's chilling with the barbs, killis, apistos, etc. and being left alone. She eats food which falls near her but doesn't dart about for it, like black phantom tetras normally do, and her swimming is awkward and laboured. Poor fish.

One question... when the fish was injured, the male that sent her crashing into the filter to begin with became even more aggressive. He would not relent for even a second, which was the reason I decided to shift her to the other tank. When we went to net her, the male was so determined that he swam into the net with her, and it took some effort to chase him out. He wasn't keen on that. There were three other perfectly healthy, happy females, but this male couldn't have cared less about them. Any thoughts on this behaviour? I know domestic violence incidents have increased under lockdown, but they are fish, and their lives won't have changed that much.