oakie
April 2nd, 2008, 09:12 PM
ok - this was one of the most difficult things I've had to do with a fish. One of my SHs started floating to the top a few weeks back and was beginning to float upside down. His pouch had filled with air so after some reading I tried the "non-equipment" approach of evacuating the air. Holding the SH and then applying pressure to the base of the sac. Well that's nerve racking enough - the guidance you get is "don't apply too much pressure and don't apply too little pressure" - well ok that's helpful, :). Tried unsuccessfully over the past few weeks a couple of times. Nothing, except unfortunately a stressed little guy. So got the nerve up today to use a catheder like tool to actually open the pouch a bit - took a deep breath and in I went.....and out popped a good size bubble, about the size of a small pea. Scared the heck out of me actually when it popped up. I was expecting a whole bunch of very small bubbles, not sure why, but was. Anyway did that a couple more times applying pressure to the sac until no more bubbles came out. Poor little guy is stressed out but can finally anchor himself and sit there vertically. He's been having a tough time chasing mysis the past few days so hoping with some target feeding I can get his strength up. Hope the little guy pulls through after all this.