# Need help to save oscar!



## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

a small 2.5" convict was getting the crap beaten out of her by another breeding pair so i took her out and put her in my cichlid community tank. one of my oscars ate her. that was two days ago. this morning, i looked at the oscar and the tail end of the con was sticking out of his mouth, i figured this isnt good so i netted him and pulled the fish out of his mouth. only about .25" was eaten, the rest was starting to look a little nasty. i put the oscar back in the tank, but now he is hiding in the corner and his mouth is still open like its locked in place and he is breathing real heavy. what the hell do i do?


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## piranha45 (Apr 8, 2003)

I suggest you hit up the Cichlid Madness link in my signature and see what they have to say of it


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## SnowCichlid (Jan 10, 2003)

WOW thats different... I know my pike cichlid will eat feeders almost its size and leave either part of the head or tail sticking out of its mouth until it gets digested.

So how long has it been now?

are you sure it is not chewing it up and spitting it back out and chewing again...

is it possible that it will come to you as if hand feeding and you could try to assist it with your hands?


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## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

here's a picture. i'm going to leave him alone for a little while, to see if it gets better without messing with it. i'll give him til tonight before i intervene. im pretty sure he wasn't spitting it out or anything, when i saw him this morning, he was just sitting on the bottom with the fish hanging out, and i really had to pull on it to get it out. i wonder if that caused some damage or something... but if you think about it, if you go fishing and a fish swallows the hook, you can stick pliers down its throat and yank the hook out and most of the time the fish is okay... i dont know, but this sucks.


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## Innes (Jan 13, 2003)

this is crazy, I think that it most likely has some fish stuck in it somewere, and that it will most likely improve soon, otherwise I'm not sure what to do.

you can however post this pic in the pinned thread in the non-piranha forum for pics of sick fish.


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Thats a trip.. never noticed that before. You probably scarred the poor fish. Let us know what the outcome is... im curious to know.


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## thePACK (Jan 3, 2003)

rday said:


> here's a picture. i'm going to leave him alone for a little while, to see if it gets better without messing with it. i'll give him til tonight before i intervene. im pretty sure he wasn't spitting it out or anything, when i saw him this morning, he was just sitting on the bottom with the fish hanging out, and i really had to pull on it to get it out. i wonder if that caused some damage or something... but if you think about it, if you go fishing and a fish swallows the hook, you can stick pliers down its throat and yank the hook out and most of the time the fish is okay... i dont know, but this sucks.


 did you pull on the fish when you were taking out of the oscars mouth?the only thing you can do is sit and back and just keep an eye on it..it probably stressed from the netting to the handling..give it time. and keep us update on the situation..


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## Amazon (Apr 15, 2003)

he has a fish stuck in his mouth


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## smb (Jun 1, 2003)

EDIT:

NM my first half of my post, I edited it out. I asked the same thing Pack did before seeing his post.

Are his gills ok?

How, what with and where were you holding the O when you extracted the convict?


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## JesseD (Mar 26, 2003)

that looks pretty crazy.

were u feeding the Oscar for the whoel time that u thought it ate the convict?

AND...has it been eatring since u pulled the convict out of the oscars mouth?

it looks as if the oscar has not eaten in awhile cause his belly is slightly indented...unless its just the way the camera was angled...anymore pics?


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## smb (Jun 1, 2003)

> if you go fishing and a fish swallows the hook, you can stick pliers down its throat and yank the hook out and most of the time the fish is okay...


No they're not.

Yes, they'll swim away, but that's because they're scared and have built-up adrenaline. They might live for a few hours or a day, but they'll die. Unless you know how to do it correctly. "Yanking" will *always* kill the fish.

I don't think this is that case here tho if only going on the mouth alone.

This fish you have will die tho,imo. He has no suction to swallow food. ( Is the pic you've shown how his mouth is all the time? I'm taking it as it is until you say otherwise.)

With his mouth hurting like it is, he probably has no intention of eating either. Just remember that fish can live a month or 2 w/o eating if they are healthy and not stressed. If it doesn't get better in a few days and he won't eat, I would try to do something.

If you mess with their gills or innards, they will die. What did you use and how did you do it?

I have 30 years experience of taking hooks out of fish, ever since I was 7. 
I fish 5 days a week in that time. And countless bass tournaments. I will try to help as much as possible if I can.

Please give us all the info you can so everyone here can try to help.

There's a LOT of people here that know more already than anyone I've ever seen.


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## rday (Mar 10, 2003)

Great news, the fish has been perfectly fine all day! As of this afternoon his mouth has been functioning properly and he has been eating and everything. Thanks for all the advice and help!


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## thePACK (Jan 3, 2003)

rday said:


> Great news, the fish has been perfectly fine all day! As of this afternoon his mouth has been functioning properly and he has been eating and everything. Thanks for all the advice and help!










glad the little one is okay


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## RhomZilla (Feb 12, 2003)

Im also glad too!!







Hope you learned your lesson!!!


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