Popping The Swim Bladder?

[Tolak]

To do a needle aspiration it helps to have a needle & syringe. You do want to have a good knowledge of fish anatomy, as well as a feel for venipuncture or plebotomy. Start from the back, lifting under the scales, at an angle, and withdraw any gas or fluids.

You also want a broad spectrum antibiotic in the tank, as well as some epsom salt, the epsom will help with withdrawing any fluid. Any puncture wound is an infection waiting to happen, a little seeping of body fluids is actually an advantage, as it naturally cleanses the wound.

 

[drobbyb]

I seem to remember in my military training about sticking a needle in a human's chest. The procedure applied to someone who had a sucking chest wound that became engorged with air. The air was causing problems with breathing by compressing the lungs and heart. The goal was to get the air out so the lungs could reinflate on their own. It involved talking a large guage syringe and inserting it into the chest cavity and then taking the syringe part off leaving the needle in to act as a means of escape.

I'm pretty sure that you could do this with fish but it would be a risky last chance type of solution.

 

[andywg]

It is certainly possible to withdraw air from a swim bladder as this is necessary when bringing fish up from deep habitats (think 100m plus under the surface near reefs). It was as a result of this procedure that Richard Pyle noticed deep stops made him feel better on deep dives and from there a whole new theory on decompression diving started to be formed.