Watching a zebra choke

[NetsuaiAngel]

I came home from work and spent some time relaxing and watched my tank. Counted my baby zebras and checked on the two adults.

While I was watching, a baby zebra zoomed up on top of a cave, it happen to the be the alpha male's. Then another baby appeared from behind the cave and the second male adult peeked up his head from the side of the cave. All this activity and I watched and wondered what they were doing, curious and happy to see a baby come out and say 'hello'.

Then the first baby zebra 'flung' himself upwards and then clunked himself face foward to the gravel. I was in shock and thought "Oh no! What's wrong?!"

So I grabbed my catch tank and took my brine shrimp net and went to scoop up the zebra baby. I had a dreadful feeling when he didn't move or flinch when I went to scoop him up. I placed him in the catch tank and moved the catch tank to a table with a bright light and I could see that the zebra had a huge chunk of food stuck in his mouth And he was still alive!!! But barely, I could see panic in his little baby eyes

So I ran and got my two smallest tweezers and attempted to dislodge the piece of food from the baby's mouth. I felt so bad because I could see his heart beating and knew he was so scared because of my attempts to carefully remove the food from his mouth. I could feel him biting down on the tweezers....

I managed to get two strips of the food out of his mouth while keeping him underwater, hoping he would spit the food out.

Then I watched as his little organs beat rapidly and then slowly stopped.

...

I was too late and I couldn't help him

I took some pictures after an hour of his death. This is a choked zebra... >cry<

He was 1.5" and from the pieces I took from his mouth I think he choked on frozen adult brine shrimp.





In this picture he looks bloated but I think this was because it was an hour past his death. When I got him out of the tank, his belly was full but not like this... this is twice the size it was when he was alive.







I know it may seem morbid of me taking pictures of a dead baby, but I wanted to show those what a choked baby looks like in case they're wondering what their zebra could have died from...

[zebra_man]

OMG! that is so sad! man when i get my zebs am i goiong to watch what i feed them! that is really sad! was he bred in your tank or bourt?

[NetsuaiAngel]

Thanks zebra_man. He was bought, one of the new fry.

I thought I was being careful on their food but didn't know that they can't eat adult brine shrimp.

So I'm now dedicating a chopping block to my zebras and will chop up their frozen food for them.

This is what I normally feed them:

Frozen baby brine shrimp plus - 1-2 cubes
Frozen blood worms - 1 cube
Frozen daphnia - 1 cube
Frozen algae - 1 cube

I usually let these soak in a squirt of their tank water for the food to warm up and also drop in a drip of Zoecon.

I just hope the other zebras are doing fine. I plan to do my thorough cleaning of the tank this weekend; getting overloaded with snails and siphoning the snails daily doesn't seem to dent their population.

- Angela

[discusbabe]

Angela I am so sorry for your loss! You were very brave and it sounds like you did all you could to try and save him. RIP baby Zebra

[zebra_man]

how big was the brine shrimp? at your loss thow many will live, when i get my ZP i will be so careful what i feed and i will always surpivise if possable!

[McEve]

I'm so sorry to hear this NetsuaiAngel And your attempt to save him... I can only imagine how terrible you must have felt, but admire your quick action and that you kept your head cool and did the right thing!

Fry choking on food is all too common unfortunately, one can't be careful enough with fish that size!

Sorry NetsuaiAngel

[thebuddy]

mceve can you think of any easy to find safe foods so noone has to see that happen again? do zebras eat sinking pellets?

[madmoroccan]

I am so sorry for your loss. I have fish about the same size as that one and I usually feed them cyclops or baby brine shrimp only...

You may also want to separate the ones less than 1 years old to their own "smaller" tank. This would make feeding them the right stuff easier.

Good luck.

Bader

[McEve]

do zebras eat sinking pellets?

Yes they do.

[Briesje]

I'm sorry to hear that how sad...

[NetsuaiAngel]

@ zebra_man

The brine shrimp was adult sized. Not sure how to estimate their size... I guess about 3-4 mm (milimeters).

I've only lost one of the new babies. So I have two adult males and three juveniles with nine babies left. A total of 14 zebras.

@ discusbabe and McEve

Thank you. It was very hard to stay focus and attempt to pull the food out... I actually called a friend to help keep me calm through the whole ordeal.

I hope mincing he frozen cubes before hand now will prevent any future choking. I've also started to add finely crushed flake food in with their food to give them some more carbs.

@ thebuddy

They do munch on sinking wafers and algea wafers. I'll feed them a combination of sinking wafers, algea wafers, and fine crushed flakes every other day. Frozen foods are fed on the other days. I found that mine don't like sinking shrimp pellets.

@ madmoroccan

Thanks Bader for the suggestion Right now I only have two adults and they seem happy to munch on the minced food. I watched everyone last night with their moonlighting on.


Thank you everyone for your support.

- Angela

[n00dl3]

very sad to hear your lose... i feed my baby zebs with hikari sinking pellets. They seem to enjoy them. I haven't seem them eat yet and i have gotten for two weeks alrready. once again, sorry for your lose. Nice quick thinking to save the choking baby zebs.

[CDNAqua]

Please accept my most sincere condolences on your loss.


peace



Troy

[blueblue]

it looks so cute and beautiful....it's really sad ...

[NetsuaiAngel]

Thank you everyone.

I'm working on a solution on mincing the food that does require me at the chopping block

I'll let everyone know how it works out soon.