Help!,! Argi angelfish tail stuck in filter.

[reefer295]

I bought a baby Argi angelfish yesterday. A few minutes ago, I looked at him and he was in his rock, but when I came back, his tail was stuck in the filter. He was not stuck for longer than a minute, and he is still breathing, and there is not much visible damage, but he is upside down. Will he make it?

 

[Crabs McJones]

@Jay Hemdal
Can you give us more details?
Is he in quarantine or in main display? Was he ran through a quarantine or profilactic treatment? What are parameters?

 

[reefer295]

He was in the main display tank, but is now in a small breeding box at the top of the tank. He is pretty small though, and was recently bullied by a damselfish that I immediately removed.

 

[Jay Hemdal Verified Community Expert]

I bought a baby Argi angelfish yesterday. A few minutes ago, I looked at him and he was in his rock, but when I came back, his tail was stuck in the filter. He was not stuck for longer than a minute, and he is still breathing, and there is not much visible damage, but he is upside down. Will he make it?

Sorry to see. You did the right thing moving it to a breeder box, but the fish is moribund and may not recover.

Given that you just got the fish, I suspect an acclimation issue. Do you know the salinity it was in at the store (or can you call them) versus the salinity of your tank? Fish do not handle a rise in salinity very well and some stores keep their salinity low.

The damsel could have gotten a lucky bite in that caused this, but you would see bite marks on the fins, etc.

The fish could have been in poor shape from the the store. Transporting a fish to a new tank is always stressful, and if the fish was weak at the store, it might not be able to survive the transition.


Jay