Punchanello
Well-Known Member
My wife has a 25 gallon Nano. She has a longnose hawkfish which she loves. She was adding a bit more rock with epoxy one night a few days ago and the next day saw her hawkfish lying on the bottom of the tank. She called me in to take a look. It was not breathing that I could see, it was upside down, had lost all it's colour and it's eyes were cloudy. I've seen a few dead fish in my time and she is new to the hobby. That fish was gone. No doubt in my mind at the time.
She reached in the tank to pull him out and swore she felt him move a bit. I wasn't convinced. Wishful thinking I thought. She leaped up, grabbed a small bucked and pulled some water from my tank, stuck an air hose and pump on it and a heater and put the hawkfish in. He couldn't sit up on his fins and kept ending up upside down so she made a little sling to hold him upright. At this point, all I saw was a dead fish. Maybe it was very, barely breathing, but a goner for sure. But she did not give up. She kept him there for the whole day and that night screeched that she saw him breathing. I looked and maybe it did, just a little, perhaps a breath to delay the inevitable. But she kept hoping. Changing the bucket water and occasionally swimming him in her cupped hand to make sure water was flowing over the gills.
Over the next five days he regained his colour and his eyes began to clear up and move again. We did some big water changes and ran carbon in the nano. On day five we returned him. 3 days later he was eating again, and today (3 days after that) it's like nothing happened. He's his usual self, begging for food when we walk in the room and generally being his charismatic self.
I learnt a big lesson from her. Never give up on a fish, and, she's an absolute champion for doing everything in her power to keep him alive.
She reached in the tank to pull him out and swore she felt him move a bit. I wasn't convinced. Wishful thinking I thought. She leaped up, grabbed a small bucked and pulled some water from my tank, stuck an air hose and pump on it and a heater and put the hawkfish in. He couldn't sit up on his fins and kept ending up upside down so she made a little sling to hold him upright. At this point, all I saw was a dead fish. Maybe it was very, barely breathing, but a goner for sure. But she did not give up. She kept him there for the whole day and that night screeched that she saw him breathing. I looked and maybe it did, just a little, perhaps a breath to delay the inevitable. But she kept hoping. Changing the bucket water and occasionally swimming him in her cupped hand to make sure water was flowing over the gills.
Over the next five days he regained his colour and his eyes began to clear up and move again. We did some big water changes and ran carbon in the nano. On day five we returned him. 3 days later he was eating again, and today (3 days after that) it's like nothing happened. He's his usual self, begging for food when we walk in the room and generally being his charismatic self.
I learnt a big lesson from her. Never give up on a fish, and, she's an absolute champion for doing everything in her power to keep him alive.
