Silver Shark Caught In Fake Plant

[IndySE]

Hallo,
 
Done my daily morning (9am) check on the tanks numbers and I noticed one of my Silver Sharks caught in a fake plant. No idea how long he had been in there.
 
Managed to untangle him, catch him in a net and stick him in a breeding trap by himself with some food but he's not looking too hot at the moment, shows sproradic signs of movement every now and then but most of the time is just laying on the bottom.
 
Anything I can do or is it too late?
 
Cheers,
Indy

 

[the_lock_man]

Could go either way, but a couple of things to point out.
 
A breeding trap is a very small amount of water for the fish to be in, the water flow through them is often not that great, so you may well find that ammonia builds up in there quite quickly, on top of being a stressful place to be anyway.
 
If you don't have a proper tank to use as an isolation unit (which I assume you don't otherwise you'd have used it!), I would say that the best place for him would be back in the main tank (unless you've got some boisterous species in there, like Tiger Barbs). I would say do daily water changes of about 30% to make sure he's as happy as possible. And remove the fake plant.
 
If you keep him in the breeding trap, make sure that the water in the trap is being refreshed as often as possible.

 

[IndySE]

Hi,
 
Thanks for that, I've attached what I think is a breeding trap lol, its a plastic floating box with slits on the sides and bottom (I've attached a pic) to confirm.
 
I could put him in back in the tank, there's nothing in there that attacks him so he should be safe, I figured keeping him in the box I could at least keep an eye on him.
 
Cheers,
Indy

 

[the_lock_man]

Sheesh, he looks bad. When you said "lying there", I assumed that he was upright, not on his side.
 
It's a reasonable size trap, but those slits down at the bottom don't let the water circulate properly, so like I said before, you'll find ammonia building up quite quickly, so you need to make sure that the water in the trap stays as fresh as you can make it - the tank/filter won't do it effectively for you.
 
But I suspect that this is academic anyway, because it doesn't look like he's going to make it. I also wonder if he did get trapped, or whether he is ill for another reason - he does look very thin towards the rear - and that was just where he rested.

 

[IndySE]

I bought two at the same time, the others as happy as Larry at the moment. It was definitely stuck in the plant, all I could see was its tail near the bottom but maybe it just floated there and got tangled, can't say for sure.
 
Will give him checks over the next few hours and see if he's looking better or worse, like you I suspect it is only gonna go one way from here...
 
Cheers,
Indy

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Pour tank water into that breeding trap at least every 30 minutes to clear it.  I'd pour water in until you've added twice as much water to the trap as it holds.  This will ensure that you've thoroughly flushed the old water out.
 
 
But, I have very little hope that he'll pull through.  I do hope that I am wrong though.

 

[IndySE]

Also thanks for the advice everyone
 
Cheers,
Indy

 

[IndySE]

Not looking too promising at the moment...

 

[PrairieSunflower]

I've had more than one fish wedge itself in a plant to die.
 
Hope he pulls through but he does look really ill.

 

[IndySE]

Didn't make it... And then for some reason a Pleco died too ;(
 
Did a 40% water change last night and took out a piece of bogwood I had in there, might take everything out and just start again, more rocks rather than fake plants...
 
Cheers,
Indy