Pectoral Fin Stuck In Gill!

bugs713 · Jun 5, 2012

I have a Purple Tilefish and noticed today that his Left pectoral fin is folded into his gill; NEVER seen this before! He is swimming, eating, breathing and acting completely normal and hangs with the other Purple Tilefish.

They have been in my 185 DT for 3 days; bought them over the weekend, placed in 20L QT, QT blew a seam at 3am draining 10g on the floor, bagged the Tilefish acclimated them into the 185, no problems, eating, swimming with other Tilefish, two small Mimic Tangs and two cleaner shrimp - all happy, no fighting.

This tank is also 38" deep, so the chances of successfully netting him or rather low. Could the cleaner shrimp have done this? They spent their share of time visiting the cleaners.

Any ideas on what to do?

These are the best pics I could get, will try to get better ones:

bugs713 · Jun 8, 2012

ANYONE?

Sent from my SGH-T959 using Tapatalk 2

sandwi54 · Jun 8, 2012

When a fish does this, especially puffers, it's usually an indication of parasite in the gills. It was good that you QT it, but it would have been better if you had just put him into a small container instead of the DT.

Hopefully it's just a one time thing, but if it's recurring, you may have a disease proble in your DT now.

bugs713 · Jul 14, 2012

sandwi54 said:
When a fish does this, especially puffers, it's usually an indication of parasite in the gills. It was good that you QT it, but it would have been better if you had just put him into a small container instead of the DT.

Hopefully it's just a one time thing, but if it's recurring, you may have a disease proble in your DT now.

No signs of parasites, so hopefully a one time thing like you said. Thanks!

UPDATE: This morning
<style>  </style> I didn't need to use my trap, I placed the net in the water at the surface for about 30 minutes to get them use to it, then fed the tank and first caught one of the mimics (If I was trying to catch this Mimic, it would not have happen...) I then caught the correct Tilefish rather quickly!

I had a cloth wet with SW layed out, put on latex gloves and put on my head set magnifier glasses - I looked like a halfazz doctor haha.

I made a FET (Fin Extraction Too)

using a zip-tie and used the thin blunt pointed end to slip between his body and the gill/fin and lightly pulled it out.I held him in the net while doing this and his out of water time was 30 seconds.
Back in the DT, he immediately swam down into his night sleeping spot deep into the rock and hid. I fed chunks of Rod's frozen food and he came right out to feed (Piggish)as normal.

He is moving the fin and swimming with it, but it is more forward towards his nose than it should be. I'm sure it will get back to normal position in due time as it was forward, stuck in the gill for a while. He is also spending time at the fish wash with the Cleaner Shrimp.

He actually handled this well and when I cupped my hand around him while in the net, he totally calmed down and allowed me to do this.
I'll keep an eye on him and hope for the best. He's swimming and food hunting now 20 minutes after.
I will call this a success if all is well in a few days, but feeling some major relief right now!
Thanks for the help!

F.E.T (Patent Pending...)

His left fin:

F.E.T (Patent Pending...)

Pectoral Fin Stuck In Gill!

bugs713

In-A-Gadda-Divita!

bugs713

In-A-Gadda-Divita!

sandwi54

New member

bugs713

In-A-Gadda-Divita!

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