Angel Spine lodged in Fish eye !!!

Hi all,

Just after some advice. My green wolf eel has a spine in its eyeball. I think my pygmy angel stabbed him in the night whilst they where brawling. What should i do leave it in or take it out (the spine that is).

Here are some pics... don't laugh... too much.

 

if you have a quarintie tank i would put him in there. IMO i would take the spike out, but i am not 100% on that

 

I was thinking of taking it out but i wasn't sure if i should just let nature take its course. I mean surely the body will just reject it soon enough and slowly push it out.

 

I would also think it would dislodge unless it is like a sail cat spine or ray. These spines are barbed..kind of like a fish hook but on both sides. Is it actually in the eye or off to the side? The pictures make it look like it is not actually in the eye. If off to the side you could try to pull it out. You are going to need another set of hands and you will still have a hard time as the are slippery and you do not want to get bit. Eels have extreme amounts of bacteria in the mouth which will give you an infection. If barbed and in the eye you will end up pulling the eye out. This is a hard call. Things I would think about are;

Is it causing any issues with feeding.. is he/she still eating?

Is he/she bumping into the LR which could drive it deeper?

Do you notice if he/she is rubbing against the substrate trying to dislodge it?

Maybe you could just clip off as much as possible and hope the rest works it's way out.

let us know what you do and how it works out

CA

 

Yes all good in that department

Unfortunately yes. Its not going deeper but whenever it get bumped it hurts it.

Generally speaking i haven't noticed a massive change in fish behavior. It is still its normal color and isn't breathing rapidly. It doesn't even seem to be making an attempt to scrape the spine out.

Will do :thumb_up:

 

Well i pulled it out. My eel (dottyback) is extremely used to the presence of my hand in the tank and generally associates it as a good thing. Mostly cause that where its food comes from. Anyway i just got a sharp fine pair of tweezers and pulled it out. Pretty simple really. Oh and for the record the spine that came from the angel wasn't barbed. But is was pretty strong and i struggled to brake it in my fingers which makes me wonder how the eel got it in its eye.

Well i guess you really do learn something new everyday.

Cheers for the advice boys.

 

glad to hear that your eel is doing well

 

Ya do learn something New everyday at 3REEF that is. Thanks for the info Mission.. I thought it kind of looked different then most eels.. +1

NSR also thanks for letting us know..