Fat Bichir+Clay pot= Trouble!!!

Oh no! Sick fish?! Come here and see if someone can help!
Forum rules
Read this before posting!!

Since this board has been up, we have found there are several questions that routinely get asked in order to help diagnose problems. If you can have that information to begin with in your post, we'll be able to help right away (if we can!) without having to wait for you to post the info we need.

1) Your water parameters - pH, Ammonia, Nitrite, Nitrates and salinity (if appropriate). This is by far the most important information you can provide! Do not answer this with "Fine" "Perfect" "ok", that tells us nothing. We need hard numbers.

2) Tank size and a list of ALL inhabitants. Include algae eaters, plecos, everything. We need to know what you have and how big the tank is.

3) Feeding, water change schedule and a list of all products you are using or have added to the tank (examples: Cycle, Amquel, salt, etc)

4) What changes you've made in the tank in the last week or so. Sometimes its the little things that make all the difference.

5) How long the aquarium has been set up, and how did you cycle it? If you don't know what cycling is read this: Fishless Cycling Article and familiarize yourself with all the information. Yes. All of it.

We want to help, and providing this information will go a LONG way to getting a diagnosis and hopeful cure that much faster.

While you wait for assistance:
One of the easiest and best ways to help your fish feel better is clean water! If you are already on a regular water change schedule (50% weekly is recommended) a good step to making your fish more comfortable while waiting for diagnosis/suggestions is to do a large water change immediately. Feel free to repeat daily or as often as you can, clean water is always a good thing! Use of Amquel or Prime as a dechlor may help with any ammonia or nitrite issues, and is highly recommended.

Note - if you do not normally do large water changes, doing a sudden, large water change could shock your fish by suddenly changing their established water chemistry. Clean water is still your first goal, so in this case, do several smaller (10%) water changes over the next day or two before starting any large ones.
Post Reply
User avatar
cobra1713
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 316
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:26 am
Location: Apple Valley, CA

Fat Bichir+Clay pot= Trouble!!!

Post by cobra1713 »

ok well here is about the funniest thing i have ever have happen to me with fish keeping! ill just start off with a picture then explain what happened!

Image

Image

now also he is OK!

that is a senegalus bichir and a terra cotta pot stuck together lol

i came home yester day and fed the tank like normal and some of the sinking carnivore pellets sank into the front of the pot, well smart bichir decided since he could fit his head through the hole in the bottom of the pot he could fit his whole body through it, so on he when to try and get some food, only to make it right to the start of the dorsal spines (were he starts to get fat) and realize he was completely wedged in the hole. thanks to my girlfriend noticing the noise of him moving the gravel around i quickly realized the predicament i was in. so after gently trying to coax him through the hole backwards, i realized his gills wouldnt fit through the hole backwards.

so the only option i was left with was to break the pot! so with a little help from my brother i lifted the pot (along with the bichir) into a 5 gallon bucket 1/2 full of water and gently took a standard screw driver and hammer and chiseled away the clay until the bichir was able to swim away!

the only injuries are some torn scales on the bichir around were he was stuck, (being treated with melafix)
and a cut hand from being thrashed by the dorsal spines of a bichir while trying to break the pot, those fish are VERY strong, and those spines are suprisingly sharp lol

but ill try and get some pics of the bichir now that he isnt stuck in a pot lol
60g with 2 angels, 1 yoyo loach, Upside down catfish, Clown Loach, 1 leopard Ctenopoma, 12 black skirt tetras and a L201 Pleco

30g GSP tank (soon to be 35 gal Hex)
User avatar
groovitudedude
Fahaka Puffer
Posts: 816
Joined: Sun Dec 02, 2007 12:25 am
My Puffers: 1X Dwarf Puffer, 1X Auriglobus Silus
Location: SoCal

Re: Fat Bichir+Clay pot= Trouble!!!

Post by groovitudedude »

Lucky you found him. I've seen a person who lost a 12'' bichir because it drowned. Glad to hear he's okay, and hope he heals up well!
Fire Eel!
Tiny Fish Forum
User avatar
OkieMavis
Puffer Fry
Posts: 36
Joined: Sat Apr 05, 2008 7:12 pm

Re: Fat Bichir+Clay pot= Trouble!!!

Post by OkieMavis »

Ugh yeah, Birchir need to surface for air, of course it happened to that guy! But now that it's over, that's a very silly predicament. Sounds like your birchir would have awesome survival skills in the wild :P
User avatar
cobra1713
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 316
Joined: Sat Dec 01, 2007 3:26 am
Location: Apple Valley, CA

Re: Fat Bichir+Clay pot= Trouble!!!

Post by cobra1713 »

yea in the wild he would just get stuck inbetween a couple twigs or something chasing a worm lol
60g with 2 angels, 1 yoyo loach, Upside down catfish, Clown Loach, 1 leopard Ctenopoma, 12 black skirt tetras and a L201 Pleco

30g GSP tank (soon to be 35 gal Hex)
TJ3000
Puffer Fry
Posts: 11
Joined: Fri Apr 25, 2008 7:19 pm
My Puffers: T. Palembang: King Dong

Re: Fat Bichir+Clay pot= Trouble!!!

Post by TJ3000 »

HAHAHA Man that sucks that ought to teach him a lesson!
jimi
Green Spotted Puffer
Posts: 485
Joined: Thu Apr 03, 2008 12:43 pm
My Puffers: 2 Tetraodon biocellatus :karma and Vipaka
1 Carinotetraodon Lorteti : gir
1 Auriglobus modestus :big red
1 Takifugu ocellatus : shark bait
Other
1 : Apteronotus albifrons
1 : Stigmatogobius sadanundio
2 : Brachygobius xanthozona
3 : Epalzeorhynchus frenatus.
4 : Pantodon buchholzi
6 : Xiphophorus helleri

Re: Fat Bichir+Clay pot= Trouble!!!

Post by jimi »

well luckily hes ok but he seems to be a greedy little thing .. which is kinda a species standard for him ..yey
Post Reply