Injured Copper Harelquin

[yabadaba]

Hi, my son's pretty upset at the moment because he's just done a water change on his 35l tank and accidentally sucked one of his Copper Harlequins through the tubing and into the bucket. He immediately netted it and returned it to the tank, but it is clearly injured as it has turned a red colour around its' head and after swimming around for about a minute it started floating upside down and is now inverted and still at the top, but is still alive. I've told my son that I doubt there is much he can do and that it will probably pass away soon, but I'd thought I'd ask here just in case anyone can suggest a course of action.

 

[ellena]

I accidentally suck up my endlers all the time and they suffer no ill effects.
However, I once sucked up my betta and dropped him back out the end into the tank. This movement against the direction of his gills caused damage, he bled and died about 3 days later.
I would have thought a small fish like a harlequin would travel through OK, but if you can see signs of damage, maybe it was injured on the way through. I don't think there's really much you can do as long as the water is clean and there are no causes of stress in the tank.