PlanetCatfish.com

Here is the story in a nutshell.

My girl decides to put an orange toy scuba diver into the tank. My VERY large catfish decides that it may taste good.
He swallows the thing and lives with it in his stomach for about 2 weeks. We thought he was going to die. BUT in a turn of events the sword that the scubaman is holding peirces into the bottom of the stomach and puts a hole inside the fish. 2 Months later, he is more energetic then he ever was. He is living with a rather large objeect in his stomach and he is eating and going about his normal daily business just fine. Probably even more hyper then he once was. This is too freeken crazy.. Just thought you guys would appreciate this craaaaaazyness..

Check out the pics.

http://www.decormyhome.com/catfish/Picture%20157.jpg
http://www.decormyhome.com/catfish/Picture%20158.jpg
http://www.decormyhome.com/catfish/Picture%20159.jpg
http://www.decormyhome.com/catfish/Picture%20160.jpg
http://www.decormyhome.com/catfish/Picture%20165.jpg


You may also watch a VIDEO of him in action if you think I manipulated the pictures to make it look fake.

Here is the CATFISH VIDEO

http://www.decormyhome.com/catfish/Picture%20197.avi


Enjoy!!!

Why would anyone think that was faked?
Good to see posting photos took priority over medical attention
Get a life.

A marina biologist at the NY Aquarium had indicated that it will cost $1500 for surgery. If you are willing to pay for it I am willing to make it happen.

Change the girl man. This is freaking awful :(

Regards.

Vborker, why did you just say that to yourself?

say what to myself?? I dont understand what you mean

this is not just very sad for that fish; it also is extremely outrageous and downright revolting that you treat the whole issue as a joke and on top of it try to extort money from people by playing on their ethics when it comes to injured fish.

you should
A: be ashamed of yourself! or maybe you don't know such emotions due to the complete lack of any morals whatsoever?
B: be banned ASAP, because this kind of behaviour (turning a badly treated and badly injured fish into a freakshow and trying to rob people of their cash) definitely drags the planetcatfish down bad

I've seen a lot of bad stuff happening in more than 30 years of experience with fishkeeping, dumb or neglecting fishkeepers and unscrupulous LFS personell, but this is definitely a new low.
not good

Oh My...

Typically i would refrian from replying to such a post, but this is awefull to see a beautifull fish such as an RTC like this, and for you to think that we would apreciate seeing this, is just wrong. I know there are many thoughts on whether fish feel pain, but i feel that to a certain extent they must, and am damn sure that they feel discomfort. To alow such a thing to happen is just bad husbandry of a fish that to keep healthy needs alot of care.

[Edited to remove initail angry comments (btw i typed before i thought and i apologise)]

Not to mention now this fish has a forign object not just embedded in its stomach but indeed passing through the stomach wall and protruding outside of the wall. Every time it brushes against something, or every time it gets starteld and catches that on something it risks not only further injury but also infection and more discomfort. Who knows how much damage will be caused long term by this.

One has to wonder exactly what kind of a future this poor animal has.

I apologise if i sound harsh but thats my feelings on the subject.

Simon.

My VERY large catfish

Nah!! using the decor,heater/stat and plastic plants as a guide to size it looks like you have a small

As these large preditory Catfish like to scower the substrate for freshwater crabs and similar, those plastic plants may be next!

A marina biologist at the NY Aquarium had indicated that it will cost $1500 for surgery. If you are willing to pay for it I am willing to make it happen.

I have to say that I hope this was asked in jest!
if not you have come to the wrong site!
unless you would like me to pay a visit and tell you what you are doing wrong, re- large cat husbandry around £2000 should cover my expenses
(JOKE )

AS you see we sometimes can make non-serious comments too, the problem is whats a jest in one country could be an insult in another, and as this site has a worldwide membership, asking for money (even in jest)is a no-no here.

Please see the rules.

vborkers post was in reply to a post which has since been deleted, so the moral indignation is misplaced and unconstructive.

You people are all fish-psychos.. I didnt mean to make this a mockery of the poor catfish.. I was really upset that this happened.... And still am.. If I had the loot I would def fix this fix and get a surgeon to do a surgery....

I wonder if netting the fish and cutting off the arm with a wire cutter will help?

I've read these fish regurgitate inedible objects. That arm acts like a barb on a hook.

No this wont help this is what I thought myself when the thing was inside of him. We netted him and tried to squeeze and push it out of the mouth but it didnt work. (and his breath stunk!).. So if I cut off the arm it will be the same issue.. I think since he is alive now and much better then he was last month i feel its best I leave it as it unless I get him the surgery.

There may be a viable option for this red tail cat's problem. Fortunately the problem is something it can live with for awhile. Here is my suggestion.
Order some quinaldine fish anesthesia and put him under for what inevitably will be extremely stressful for the fish.
Push the belly in and remove as much of the protrusion as possible.
Use a long nosed hemostat to put down it's throat to the gut.
Try to get a grip on the object and gently work it back out the way it went down.
If you have been successful in removing the foreign object treat him with antibiotics in a quarantine tank and don't begin feeding the fish until you see at least some healing around the puncture wound.
This procedure has a chance because of the fish's size and the object has remained in the gut. Very large catfish can endure a lot of trauma and survive. Fisherman of N.A. giant cats like flatheads, channel, and blue cats can tell true tales of their catch surviving over night in a gunny sack after they have swallowed hooks and come back alive after being tossed in a watering trough. The most dangerous part for the fish is probably dosing the anesthesia accurately.
It should be done with planning and deliberation. Once you start, do not get squeamish and stop. This fish will die if you don't remove the foreign object. Doing something is better than allowing the situation to continue. That would be cruel.

Excuse my naivety, I can't even vaguely to pretent to know a lot about catfish husbandry or medical procedures, but would the possiblity of anaesthetising the fish, clipping the arm off, and then feeding the fish animal fats (in order for it to vomit) be a viable option?

It's terrible to see a fish in distress like that.

Poor fish

I gather that in order to pull the Scuba-Man back up though the throat, that there is plenty of space there. ie, no little sphincters and such, like we have ?

Personally, I'd be more comfortable with enlarging the hole with a neat scalpel cut, and pulling the poor bloke out straight through the side.

Whoa! the first flaming I have seen on planetcatfish! I think thats pretty sick you shouldnt have any cheesy decorations like that in a tank especcially with an RTC around! that was just asking for trouble!

RTCs do this all the time, I guess this one is more disturbing because it's a plastic diver and the photos are graphic.

This post has the potential to get pretty heated. Unless you know a vet who works for free, I'd refrain from posting.

As this post is in the speak easy however, I'm not going to lock it unless it drops down to mudslinging.

Jools

PS IME, Most common family of catfish found for sale on eBay - you guessed it - Pimelodidae...

Jools wrote:PS IME, Most common family of catfish found for sale on eBay - you guessed it - Pimelodidae...

And my guess would be that they are of the larger varieties, not pictus-cats and such...

--
Mats

If I try to take the scuba-man out of the side of the fish from the same hole that is currently there maybe expand it??.. what do you think the chances of survival will be?? I mean the stomach will start to fill up with water right??

But when he eates the mouth fills up with water doesnt it? I mean its a fish.. ?? I dont know what to do with this guy. He seems fine.. like nothing is bothering him. When he was in trouble you could see it.. The stomach had the impression of the scuba and he was just laying on a rock and all upset .. Now he is totally himself...... Maybe its not bothering him??

MatsP wrote:

Jools wrote:PS IME, Most common family of catfish found for sale on eBay - you guessed it - Pimelodidae...

And my guess would be that they are of the larger varieties, not pictus-cats and such...

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 0002773904

Jools

vborker wrote:If I try to take the scuba-man out of the side of the fish from the same hole that is currently there maybe expand it??.. what do you think the chances of survival will be?? I mean the stomach will start to fill up with water right??

But when he eates the mouth fills up with water doesnt it? I mean its a fish.. ?? I dont know what to do with this guy. He seems fine.. like nothing is bothering him. When he was in trouble you could see it.. The stomach had the impression of the scuba and he was just laying on a rock and all upset .. Now he is totally himself...... Maybe its not bothering him??

From the documentation I've read from the now defunct Red Tail owners club, waiting for an obstruction to pass naturally is the best course of action.

Jools

Do you understand what regurgitation means? if you cut the arm off, the fish will (stressfully) vomit the Diver back out

I feel this would be the best way to deal with it

pictus_man_77 wrote:Do you understand what regurgitation means? if you cut the arm off, the fish will (stressfully) vomit the Diver back out

I feel this would be the best way to deal with it

Who are you talking to pictus man?

What experience or literature leads you to offer this advice?

AFAIK, regurgitation means "up from the stomach" not "up from the lower intestine" where this diver clearly resides.

Jools

i think early on in this topic some people really jumped on this guy hard, i dont think he meant to be funny about it, just share it with the world. As for askin for the $1500 for pay'n for the operation, come on it was just sarcasism. But yes very painful to look at .

Kev

kev wrote:i think early on in this topic some people really jumped on this guy hard

I think this is caused by the title of this topic; it sounds like the freak show on funfairs (women with beards, siamese triplets etc. and the catfish that ate the scuba man).
However, I too don't think vborker was aiming at sensation.

Marc van Arc wrote:

kev wrote:i think early on in this topic some people really jumped on this guy hard

I think this is caused by the title of this topic; it sounds like the freak show on funfairs (women with beards, siamese triplets etc. and the catfish that ate the scuba man).
However, I too don't think vborker was aiming at sensation.

The original post was poorly written, it looked sensationalist to me.

Nearly all RTC owners don't have a medium (3-5 yrs) or long term (10+ yrs) plan for keeping their fish. So, in my opinion, "some people" are quite right to jump in. They would have been out of line replying to a title of "please help my RTC" or something along those lines posted in the SA cats forum, but the post sounded like it was trying to make the issue something cool and interesting.

It's also posted in this informal forum so it's going to attract more flak.

I mean, if vborker can't afford $1500 (£750) for the vet, why did he buy an RTC? How on earth is he going to afford the poor fishes upkeep longer term with a budget of under $1500?

Jools

Jools wrote: I mean, if vborker can't afford $1500 (£750) for the vet, why did he buy an RTC? How on earth is he going to afford the poor fishes upkeep longer term with a budget of under $1500?

Jools

I have to agree with Jools, I would love to be able to keep an RTC and provde for it, but I know i could never afford the upkeep and provide for it.

Also he had posted about this in What's my catfish? as well and in that post he also sounded very much like he was asking for the money to be donated to him, so i think thats a big reason for many people jumping on him....

Anyway my previous post on this topic was rather harsh when it shouldnt have been, but it was a reaction to the way that he had written his posts in both forums, I kind of typed before i thought through what I said

With that said I have a little knowledge about fish surgery (and I really mean little ) and I think Jools is right about letting it pass naturally. However im not sure how that would happen with its arm still sticking out through the skin, and I would be concerned about secondary infections to that wound too, as it already looks relativly inflammed.

-------
Simon