Fin caught in net

[Bill]

We got several debauwi this weekend! (Actually, they're buffei sold as
"debauwi cats.") Unfortunately, one of them got its fin stuck in the
net. :( After trying gently to dislodge it for about 20 minutes, we
finally cut out a small section of net around the fin and let it go.
He's swimming around but can't use that fin. Should we keep trying to
get the piece of net off (and if so, how should we go about it), or
should we leave him to disentagle his fin himself? Help is greatly
appreciated.

--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind -
boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." -- Gene Spafford, 1992

[NetMax]

"Bill" > wrote in message
news:36vme.5657$fp.5472@fed1read05...
> We got several debauwi this weekend! (Actually, they're buffei sold as
> "debauwi cats.") Unfortunately, one of them got its fin stuck in the
> net. :( After trying gently to dislodge it for about 20 minutes, we
> finally cut out a small section of net around the fin and let it go.
> He's swimming around but can't use that fin. Should we keep trying to
> get the piece of net off (and if so, how should we go about it), or
> should we leave him to disentagle his fin himself? Help is greatly
> appreciated.
>


If the net is impairing the use of the fin, then I would cut the rest of
the net off using very small manicure scissors with curved blades.
Otherwise, I'd leave the bit of net on for a day before trying to remove
it. I generally only go about 5 minutes with the net struggle before
cutting it open (can always use new nets ;~). I'm glad you said it was
gentle, much better chances of a complete recovery (unless damage
occurred at the store).

For pleco-type catfish, what I like to do is close my fingers around the
end of the open bag and turn the bag upside-down to drain into a pail.
When all the water is gone, I move over to the tank and loosen my grip on
the bag so that they slide in. No net abrasion (good with almost any
fish) and no net tanglement (especially good with plecos, corys and some
cichlids.

Let us know how it turns out.
--
www.NetMax.tk

[Bill]

On 2005-05-30, NetMax > wrote:
> If the net is impairing the use of the fin, then I would cut the rest of
> the net off using very small manicure scissors with curved blades.
> Otherwise, I'd leave the bit of net on for a day before trying to remove
> it. I generally only go about 5 minutes with the net struggle before
> cutting it open (can always use new nets ;~). I'm glad you said it was
> gentle, much better chances of a complete recovery (unless damage
> occurred at the store).

It couldn't use the fin very well, but we didn't have any suitably small
scissors. When I initially tried to dislodge it, I tried both rubbing
the other side of the net as well as grabbing the fin and gently -- very
gently! -- tugging against the net. I'm normally not one to put Stress
Coat in the water, but I did this time, for obvious reasons.

When we checked this morning, we couldn't find him, although we were
pretty sure we saw nine of them. A closer inspection of the tank bottom
revealed a small green piece of net. Talk about relief! I was really
not looking forward to having to perform work this delicate on a
wiggling, awake fish. Regardless, we'll get some manicure scissors so
that we have them on hand.

BTW, I really like your methor for transferring the fish from the bag to
the tank. Normally, we pour the bag water through a wet net.
Coincidentally, this was the first time I tried to net them out of bag.

--
"Usenet is like a herd of performing elephants with diarrhea -- massive,
difficult to redirect, awe-inspiring, entertaining, and a source of mind -
boggling amounts of excrement when you least expect it." -- Gene Spafford, 1992