NANFA-- Hymlic manuever on a rainbow darter

NATURNUT_at_aol.com
Thu, 21 Sep 2000 17:39:38 EDT

I fed my darters their normal chopped up earthworms, which are fed every
once in a while. I noticed my oldest, and favorite darter had one stuck in
his mouth, it was apparently too big for him. I thought he would be fine,
but, I made sure to keep my eye on him just in case. I started to worry when
he started breathing heavily, and the worm had not gone down. After a little
bit, I could not see the worm anymore, but it was still in there, and he was
breathing more heavily than before. Then, all hell broke lose, he stared
floating on his stomach, and his gills were not moving from what i could see.
All there was, was an ocassional twitch. I tried to keep my cool, and reached
for a nail that was lying on the table, and netted out the fish. I then stuck
the nail through the gill plate, making sure not to tear or harm the precious
gill rakes. I poked out the worm from his mouth, and put him back, hoping for
the best, but expecting the worse. Then, he gradually came-to, and started
looking for food, again. That was yesterday, and he is as healthy as can be,
now. That was a good lesson, and something I could not have learned as good
from a book. I had never heard of anyone doing that before. I'm just glad my
beauty is doing fine! :) -Dan

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