It's taboo, but we did it & he lived!

[ScorpiosWife]

This time I'm gonna set something up or have a 3rd person take a video of the procedure. I feel so awful for him :( There was no reoccurrance after 2 days in the 50g by himself. The very next day he started to puff back up again when I put him back in his usual tank. Has to be the aggression/stress of the mating ritual the others are going through. I'd bet my hat on it.

[New2petro]

Well, if you did it once then twice will be no problem. I like the idea of moving him to his own tank for his protection. Hopefully you can find some suitable tank mates for him. Good luck and keep us posted. I think that your Oscar has become a pet of us all. Keep him safe.

[moganman]

I just read through this for the first time and I'm impressed and happy for you Dawn. You are severely passionate about your fish hobby and it shows in the dedication to your fish. Good job on getting Mr. Oscar back on the right track. Reminds me of the time I had to perform CPR on one of my puppies.

[flipside]

:( Bummer... Hopefully this isn't a reoccurring thing for the poor little guy...

[ScorpiosWife]

Thank you. Unfortunately, yesterday his swim bladder started puffing up again. Really weird! He's been in there for months with no issue & all of a sudden, his swim bladder develops an allergy to his friends? UGH!

Could be that the mating ritual is going on again & he's getting bullied, stressing him out. There's literally thousands of reasons why & I'll never know exactly what it is. Water is fine, food is fine, it's not bacterial & the other 3 O's in the tank are fine.

I'm seriously considering setting up one of the 75s in my office and moving him in there permanently. I'm gonna have to pierce it again sometime this week. Poor guy. You can't hardly even see where I poked him last week. I hate to do it again, but it has to be done.

[New_Cichlid11]

Congrats on being able to perform a surgical proceeding that many people wont/cant be able to do. Great learning experience you have under your belt right now :)

[New2petro]

That is the craziest thing that I have ever read. Congratulations Dawn for being able to puncture one of your babies and save him. I am glad to hear that it was successful.

[flipside]

Great read. Happy for your Oscar.

[LordBarron7692]

put something else in it LOL

[ScorpiosWife]

Now THAT is a fish you will appreciate that much more every time you look at him once he's back in the big tank.

Without a doubt!

Day 14 - He has made a complete disaster of the 50g & made it crystal clear by splashing me with water numerous times throughout the day to get my attention, that he is back to his silly self. So, tonight I moved him back into his 180 with his other water puppy friends. You can barely see where I picked his scales off to stick him with the needle.

Everyone was happy to see him. They immediately got into their "fish gang" formation & swam the length of the tank together a few times, bumping and tail slapping each other as they went. All is well in my little fishy world.

Now to take down the 50g... or should I put something else in it? Hmmm.

[ScorpiosWife]

Day 13 - It looks like a tornado has hit the tank, lol. I salvaged what I could of the live plants he didn't completely shred (which was most) & left the plastic ones for him to toss around. The heater is now free floating, as is the intake filter for the canister filter, the HOB intake is off again, I can see tank floor where he's moved all the sand around & he's disassembled some of the plastic plants. I've got work to do!

I think it's safe to say Mr. Oscar is feeling a lot better.

[sountfc]

Now THAT is a fish you will appreciate that much more every time you look at him once he's back in the big tank.

[sunkenmetal]

Thanks for the detailed post and nice job.

[luvmycichlids]

Congratulations on such an awesome job well done Dr Dawn!! Gotta love these happy endings (well the Oscars anyway)!!! :)

[ScorpiosWife]

Yabba dabba do not give your fish Flintstone vitamins, lol.