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RCA

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As many will know I recently had to shut down my beloved planted aquarium due to a pending move ~
> Goodbye Juwel Vision, Planted Aquarium Breakdown


The fish were moved to a young foster family. My male BN was in the cave with some developing fry so I left him in the original aquarium until just prior to when the fry were due to leave the cave. The female had not been seen since laying her eggs so I believed for whatever reason she remained in the cave with the male, a rare possibility.

The cave and the male were eventually taken to the foster home, and once the fry vacated and he eventually left the cave I was able to check for the female. NO SIGN OF HER! The family asked if he had eaten her, I did not know? I began to wonder if I had accidentally missed her and threw her out?

As the male BN was the last to leave the tank the heater and remaining filter were turned off. This was for approximately two weeks before I had time to remove the small amount of water still left and all the substrate.

Luckily I decided to remove the dividing wall prior to draining the tank fully....so what did I find...wedged in-between two parts of the wall was the female!!! Her eyes were sunk in, she was a greyish orange colour and there was no sign of life. I lifted the wall out of the water to look more closely, tried wafting it in the water and nothing. I thought when I lifted it a second time that there was a very tiny movement at the end of her mouth but was not convinced...and then...SHE BLINKED!!!

OMG...I have never moved so fast to began the rehabilitation process, of this poor sorry state of a fish...

She had been at only 60oF for about two weeks!

Feel free to ask questions on the rehabilitation, for now I just wanted to share her story, and let you know that although death seemed not far away, she has made it :-
 
cooledwhip said:
60 degrees Fahrenheit.
 
Wow, glad she's alright RCA. How is she doing now?
 
wow ... lucky fish! Hope she survives :)
 
Fishmanic said:
Before and after rehab pics
I will try and get a pic of her now, but alas she was so close to death my priority was saving her. All her fins were clamped and I really though it was just a body, until she blinked. I did get a picture of her in her recovery chamber, but it is very blurred.
---------------------------------------------------
Thanks everyone for your comments...

It is now about 3 weeks since finding her, she is out of her recovery chamber, where I kept her for about 10 days. She was drip acclimatised to slowly bring the temperature of the water up, as I felt that would have been the biggest shock to her. She was then offered some cucumber and it was a delight to see her eventually move to eat some, although it did take her some time. Plec pellets were offered after 48 hours, which eventually disappeared. Of course there was also some wood in the recovery chamber, initially she just lay on the bottom, but again it was great when I eventually saw her attach to the wood.

She is not back with the male (who is in the foster tank), but is staying with me in a 30L aquarium with some of her youngsters and a few other fish. She is now showing normal plec behaviour once again, dashing away when she sees me, grazing on wood, the glass and any food offered.

I note that at times her gills looked like they had a dark sort of bubble near them, a part of her flesh, and I am not sure I noticed this before!? She is doing so well considering, yet I do not think she is yet back to her normal colour as still looks a darker black/orange to me vs the brighter orange I recall.

I guess I am trying to understand, why she logged herself into the wall in the first place? Obviously, the breakdown of the tank was stressful for all the fish I am sure, yet to hide there for the time this whole process took, seems a bit bizarre. It would have been about 4-5 weeks since I had previously seen her. So was she hiding from the male, hiding from the tank being broken down or was not well, I may never know!?

Any ideas or thoughts on any of the above welcome?
This is the same box I used as the recovery chamber. I have found these to be quite good for such emergencies or keeping small fry. It takes the water from the main aquarium. I had to turn the pump on and off to enable the temp to raise slowly.
http://youtu.be/R9PtxdhHSyg
 

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