Flounder ER- snail shell troubles!
Posted: Mon Mar 05, 2007 3:30 pm
Boy did I have a scare today!
In my 35 gallon light-brackish tank I have a nice community of fish including my two Figure Eight puffer fish, and my Freshwater Sole 'Falafel'. I hadn't seen Falafel for a few days, and didn't think too much of it because sometimes he gets such a big share of food that he sleeps it off for a while. Today I was starting to get a little worried, so I put some squid in the tank (he loves the stuff!) hoping he would come out. Thankfully a short few minutes later he came out from the sand and started searching for food. I thought I was going to have to tear the tank apart to look for him, what a relief!
Upon closer inspection I saw he was moving a bit funny, and it looked like he was pushing around a broken piece of a ramshorn snail shell. I poked at the snail shell 'shard' and he writhed with pain... It was stuck in his face!!! I grabbed a pair of tweezers and thankfully he stayed still while I removed the half-ring shaped broken shell from his head. To give a better idea, it looked like he was wearing a hoop-earring on his head right next to his eyes.
He isn't too happy with me right now, but thankfully he is ok. I'm going to go through the sand this weekend and remove all of the snail shells. I don't know of anyone else who keeps flounders with their pufferfish (generally a bad idea anyways but my Figure Eights are rather tolerant), but I figured I'd throw out a warning about sharp broken snail shells. Burrowing fish can get hurt/impaled by them!
In my 35 gallon light-brackish tank I have a nice community of fish including my two Figure Eight puffer fish, and my Freshwater Sole 'Falafel'. I hadn't seen Falafel for a few days, and didn't think too much of it because sometimes he gets such a big share of food that he sleeps it off for a while. Today I was starting to get a little worried, so I put some squid in the tank (he loves the stuff!) hoping he would come out. Thankfully a short few minutes later he came out from the sand and started searching for food. I thought I was going to have to tear the tank apart to look for him, what a relief!
Upon closer inspection I saw he was moving a bit funny, and it looked like he was pushing around a broken piece of a ramshorn snail shell. I poked at the snail shell 'shard' and he writhed with pain... It was stuck in his face!!! I grabbed a pair of tweezers and thankfully he stayed still while I removed the half-ring shaped broken shell from his head. To give a better idea, it looked like he was wearing a hoop-earring on his head right next to his eyes.
He isn't too happy with me right now, but thankfully he is ok. I'm going to go through the sand this weekend and remove all of the snail shells. I don't know of anyone else who keeps flounders with their pufferfish (generally a bad idea anyways but my Figure Eights are rather tolerant), but I figured I'd throw out a warning about sharp broken snail shells. Burrowing fish can get hurt/impaled by them!
