Hippo Tang Vs. Powerhead

[Daniel]

My 1.5 inch blue hippo tang went head first into a modded maxi-jet. I got it out but it got scratched by the prop. I dosed with iodine, and some stress coat do I need to try to fish it out and treat it with something else? I'm worried about infection.

Daniel

[Kristy]

You do not say how big your tank is, but I would say do not stress it out more by trying to fish it out. Try feeding it frequently and maybe try to add some sort of antibiotic, vitamin, or zoe to the food to help bolster the fish. HTH.- Mike & Kristy

[MikeDeL]

I had a trigger do a face plant into the intake of my power head once. I found him in up to his pectoral fins. I cut the power and he drifted down to the bottom. I scooped him up and stuck him in his own tank. By the end of the day he had started swimming around some. He had the HUGEST hickey on his face. He made a full recovery. My next purchase was a screen to cover the intake.

How is your fish acting other than the scratches?

[Daniel]

You do not say how big your tank is

At 1.5 inch does it really matter? It's a 55 tall. Vitamins is a good idea. I agree about stressing it out, so I don't think I will try to move it to hospital tank yet nor add a general antibiotic to a display tank. Anyone ever used the feeding type antibiotics?

As far as the way its acting, everything seems normal so far. It was a little dazed at first then went back to pretending it was a tomato clown. Is the tissue damage permanent?


Daniel

[MikeDeL]

My triggers face went back to normal in a few days.... it was just a massive hickey. If its acting normal I would think thats a good sign. I would just keep an eye on it and do as Kristy suggested.

[CoryDude]

Deja vu! I lost a blue hippo to a maxi-mod last month and almost lost a blenny.

Long story short, the tang died instantly. The blenny was bruised, shredded, and wouldn't eat for almost a week, but he finally recovered.

Just keep conditions in your tank optimal, keep your tang's belly full, and he should recover in time. If he makes it past a few days, you're probably looking at a fish that will recover.

[fishn]

good luck with the fish, and invest in some screen covers for your PH

[dpotts]

My baby hippo went through my overflow twice and the second time he got stuck in my gurgle buster. He had terrible scratches on one side where he was sucked onto a hole in the gurgle buster and looked bad for a few days. It's now been 6 days and he's doing great. The scratches are all gone and he's back to being beautiful. I did nothing but feed him a lot.

[Daniel]

good luck with the fish, and invest in some screen covers for your PH

Ive never seen a screen for front end of a powerhead. Is there a mod that you have seen?

[Kristy]

At 1.5 inch does it really matter?

Yeah, what I meant was that the bigger the tank, the more difficult it generally can be to fish out the little guy, therefore the more stressful it is on him as you chase him around trying to pull him out. Pulling a fish out of our 210g is almost impossible, but anything can be fished out of our 20g without much trouble.

We have used Zoe by adding it to the food, just to strengthen the resilience when a fish is struggling a bit. Seemed like it may have helped, but hard to say for sure.

[Daniel]

We have used Zoe by adding it to the food, just to strengthen the resilience when a fish is struggling a bit.

I will try that. For such a pretty fish anything to keep it going is worth it.

Daniel

[Daniel]

Well I observed the tang all day an noone picked on it and it ate all of it's veggies. The scratches seem to be fading allready and can only see 3 small ones left. Thanks for all the tips I'll let you all know if it survives the next couple of weeks.

[CoryDude]

Just curious as to how your fish is doing. Gettin' back to normal?

[Daniel]

Just got back from vacation. Good news it has been 2 weeks and the fish is still alive and has no remaining scars from the propeller.

[Crazyeyes]

As long as it is eating, that is all i would worry about. I would switch pumps to maybe a koralia, due to the fact they put out more water and the suction isn't as intense as a maxi-jet. I lost a tang to a maxi and after that i switched to a koralia and haven't had that problem yet.