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HI THERE, i dont know if im in the right room but this is an emergency, and time is of the essence, my lima has eaten a small tiger barb which im quite sure was disaesed. it is now yawning quite alot also shaking head like its trying to bring it back up, ive also seen a small amount of mucus around the mouth he ate it last night and it doesnt look too good. Plse can anyone tell me what i can do to help him he is my favourite and i dont want to lose him, any info will be apppreciated??

There may be a much more simple solution to your problem.
Some larger Pimelodids shed their skin. So does the lima and it's a sign that your fish is growing.
The yawning may help to get the skin loose, hence the mucus in the head area. Like snakes, this skin gets mat before it's being shed, thus making the fish look pale.
Imo you have nothing to worry about and it does have nothing to do with eating a sick fish.

I agree about the shedding growth spurt but also the above antennae on head are pulled back by its side, i have not seen this behaviour b4, and ive also read of somebody elses having same symptoms (whiskas by the side and not active,) if i am right and the fish he ate was diseased, (i know it should of been removed but he got to it first) then what course of action should i take if any to help him? oh the person whos shovelnose had its whiskas at its side died the day after. What action do pple take in this scenario, thanks for reply?

If your shovelnose is otherwise healthy it's probably OK for it to eat sick fish - this happens all the time in nature, it's one part of natural selection.

However, my question is sort of why it was sick in the first place, and I'm not saying that something is wrong per se, but fish don't just break out sick for no reason in general - you may want to figure out if something is wrong in the tank, like checking the nitrate, nitrite and ammonia levels. Obviously, if this fish was sick for a well-known reason, then there's no real reason to look for the cause. Like it's been newly bought and was looking bad when you got it into the tank, or if you've had it for many years already and it was on it's way out due to old age. But if you don't know why it got sick, you may want to find out if something has gone wroong in your tank...

Other than that, I don't really see many meaningfull options - you should perhaps try to see if the fish is stuck somewhere halfway down the throat of the fish, but I think they have pretty flexible passages all the way down to the tummy, so the fish is probably already digested.

Or if you're willing to spend MUCH more than it cost to buy another similar, you could find a vet that is capable of treating fish. Should be someone available around Manchester. But the stress of catching, moving and examining the fish would probably add to any stress tha the fish is currently dealing with, and the vet may well come back with a "the fish is perfectly fine, just molting". I don't recommend this method unless you're absolutely sure there's nothing else you can do to it.

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Mats

The fish he ate is definately in his stomach, my water readings are fine, he just doesnt look to happy maybe its just uncomfortably full as his belly is big from the fish. What worries me is the head shaking and the whiskas being inactive (by the side) as i read another persons lima died after the exact same symptom. Ok thanks for the info i agree taking drastic measures will only stress him more. I will just have to wait and see till he digests it and hope hes ok. PS bye the way he ate the fish 1 inch long tiger barb last night when will shud it come out the other end? 2 nite? thanks again.

Let's first say that Pimelodidae species are notorious for "binge-eating", meaning that they will eat a whole lot of food at once, and then not eating anything for a long while. The fact that it's a bit less active is probably simply that it's got a full belly - if you think to how you feel when you've been to the local Chinese or Indian and had a BIG meal, I think you can sympathise with the fish.

As long as your Lima is reasonably much larger than the 1" barb, it's fine - which it by definition is if it's swallowed it.

You may very well not see it "come out", as the fish will probably poo out a little bit at a time.

Of course, you should still observe the fish and if it's going much worse, you may need to do something - I'm not sure what tho'.

I would also think that keeping Sorubim Lima with tiger barbs, or other small fish, is probably not going to last for very long - sooner or later the Lima will have any smaller fish that fits in it's mouth. It may not happen soon, because the tiger-barbs are fast enough to get away. But the Lima is an ambush hunter, and it will happily sit there and wait for something to come close and WHAM have it.

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Mats