HELP with trigger!

[KinibayR]

Hi there folks!

I just bought a red toothed triggerfish yesterday, very small, maybe an inch long, and now he looks half dead.

I found him this morning, sucked onto the side of one of my 20'000 liter/h powerheads. I immediately turned the pump off and he swam around a bit half dazed, I caught him with a protein shake bottle and he's now safely in my sump.

I have 2 concerns though, for one his fins and tail fin are a bit torn, and his one eye is quite bulged.

He swam away fine into the rocks to rest but I'm worried if he'll make it? will his injuries heal ?

 

[Dmorty217]

Not sounding good, typically when you find a fish that is so weak as to not being able to stay away from a power head it is a goner. I would be contacting the LFS. How long did you acclimate for and was the fish eating before you bought it?

 

[KinibayR]

Didn't acclimate very long, but our regals were the same, 2 of them also got sucked onto the power heads they were so weak, so I put a layer of this foam stuff over the pumps and this worked well. I didn't do that this time as it doesn't look very nice.
Now days, a few months later, the regals are big, fat and healthy

Could it just be he was too small? I've noticed all of my trigger's seem to investigate things in my tank, he kept going near the pump.. maybe it's just a combination of that plus he's weak.

Yes he would eat brine shrimp, although not flaked food.

All I'd like to know now is what about his eye? would the swelling subside? it doesn't look damaged, just much larger. He's currently wedged himself into a rock in my sump.

 

[Dmorty217]

The eye can get better but you will need a hospital tank you can put antibiotics in to fight infection otherwise you stand a chance of the fish going blind in that eye or losing it all together. It may subside on its own, game of chance. I would be feeding enriched brine shrimp as often as he will eat it that's for sure, especially if you opt not to use antibiotics

 

[humaguy]

Can you post a pic?...keep the water pristine and the lights off for a few days to minimize any unnecessary stress...feed the heck out of her...baby trigs have an insanely fast metabolic rate and really need to be fed almost hourly...a tiny trig can be no match for a powerful water mover....sometimes it is best to malk an egg crate cage to go over your mover to keep the trig away...good luck and please let me know how she is doing. TK