Please Help! Choking?

[npila1]

I think my comet may be choking. I think she has a piece of gravel in her mouth. And her fins are clamped. She just started scratching against the gravel on the rbottom. Please let me know what I should do

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

can you see the rock in her mouth?

[npila1]

no

[npila1]

She is opening and closing her mouth continuously and her gills are extending out

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

I doubt she has a rock if you cannot see it in the mouth. have they been treated for gill flukes?

[npila1]

She has been clamped like this for minutes. They are being treated for flukes now. They are in week 8. But I haven't seen her scratching even before I started the treatment.

[npila1]

She went to the bottom now sitting

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

maybe you should do a quick testing of the water parameters.

does it look like she is chewing?

[npila1]

yes she may be chewing but it's been so long she's been doing this. water parameters are good

this started right after I fed

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

what did you feed? maybe she has food stuck? try lifting her up gently, sometimes this works in making them spit out the food.

[npila1]

I fed progold. I did lift her up, but she is still "chewing"

Her dorsal fin is erect now at least but she is not swimming much

[npila1]

Fin clamped again. I saw some progold particles coming out of her mouth, as if she was spitting out chewed up progold

[npila1]

All her fins are clamped and she looks like she's struggling with something, but I don't know what :'(

Is there anything I can do?

[npila1]

She just yawned..... ?

I have no idea what's going on

[devilduck]

Lift her out of the water head down (vertically) for a second or two, then put her back, the food should fall out either on the way out or back into the water. I've had to do this more than once when my tiny oranda gets a chunk of food that's too big for her...

Let us know how it works.

[npila1]

I did it but she was really slippery so I don't know if I did it for long enough. I didn't see any food come out. She is still completely clamped and opening her mouth very little, not wide. She is swimming around a bit now. She did try to suck on the gravel a couple of times, I don't know if that's a good sign. I don't want to take her out again if I don't have to, because I don't want to stress her out too much - I already took her out 3-4 times so far

[devilduck]

Ok leave her for bit and see how she is in 15 minutes time Maybe she got some crumbs in her gills or something and it was irritating her

[npila1]

She is sucking on the gravel now and looks a bit better but she is still a bit slow and all her fins are still clamped

Ok thanks for the advice, I really appreciate it...

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

keep am eye on her. yesterday my small celestial took an ENTIRE pea in his mouth (which was meant for the larger fish) and chewed it for like 10mins. I take it as a good sign when they are trying to stuff MORE in their mouths - like your guy

Maybe lift her out again if it hasn't stopped in 10mins.

[number20121]

If it is food, I think the chances for it to fall apart when soaked enough are pretty good. She already seems to be a bit better.

Did you pre soak the food?

[npila1]

Yes I presoaked the food but only for half a minute or so because in the past I realized that when I soak it for longer, progold falls apart completely... She looks better now but her fins are still clamped and it's been over an hour since I fed them and since this has started. She also yawns a lot - can that be because of flukes? I've been treating them for flukes for 40 days now, so shouldn't they have all died by now?

[Captain Findus Goldfish]

what is your prazi regimen?

[npila1]

The 35-day schedule recommended on kokos, but I extended it by one more week because I could still see them yawning once in a while last week, and it was suggested to me that I extend the treatment.

By the way, I also wanted to ask what I should do about her slimecoat. I used the net to take her out of the water and I also handled her in my hand. What can I do to help her replace her slimecoat? Should I add prime or stresscoat to the water?

Edited October 29, 2010 by npila1

[pss_gold]

My fishies started acting really weird when I did the prazi treatment too. Ended up losing a couple and draining the tank and scrubbing everything. I stopped the treatment after the cleaning and everything has gone back to normal. I'm still not sure what that was all about.

I think yawning once in a while is ok since that's their way of clearing out their gills of waste and particles that settle there. Kind of like us blowing our nose.

Stress coat or prime should be fine to add to the water. It'll also help to detox anything in the tank. Prime says to add enough to treat the total volume so i'd suggest doing that for whichever you choose.

Hope your fish is still ok

[Cynders]

A fish can die from a fluke treatment if they have a heavy parasite load, not necessarily the prazi itself.

If they are still yawning or twitching I would do a good vacuum and wait a week or two, then try another week. The eggs are resistant to the prazi, so you need to give the eggs a chance to hatch.