While it’s fairly well known that frogfish, in this case, a hairy frogfish (Antennarius striatus), will eat anything that can fit in its extremely large mouth, we did not expect our pet Tadpole to quickly pounce on a Two Little Fishies Nano Mag as soon as it floated in front of his face. The magnet fell off during regular glass cleaning, and just seconds later it was in his mouth and down into his stomach.
My wife, Beth, and I desperately tried to stress him out and cause him to vomit the magnet, but he would not open his mouth. We debated euthanizing him right on the spot with clove oil, as we thought the magnet would break down slowly and poison him or perforate his stomach. After the initial shock of what happened and we were able to think clearly, we reached out to everyone on forums, Facebook, and friends of friends to see what could be done. Eventually, the word got out to many of the big-name reefers who had many suggestions. Our predicament then was that there is a fish medication ban in Canada and without a prescription, there would be no way for us personally to sedate him safely nor did we feel confident in performing the extraction ourselves.
Surgery Via Video Call
Eventually, with the help of a friend who studies frogfish at university, we were directed to a list of vets in Ontario who worked with exotics and we found a fish vet who thought surgery was an option, however, he was out of the country for the next several weeks not to mention that his office was six hours away. He recommended Dr. Foster Scott, who runs Veterinary Aquatic Solutions Inc. Dr. Scott replied quickly and thought extraction would be possible. He mentioned working with frogfish while at the University of Melbourne, so he was at least somewhat familiar with the species. He was even further away from our home than the first fish vet, so we talked about the risk of transporting him there and also the travel costs. Dr. Scott suggested he find a local veterinarian who could be instructed on the extraction via video call. He was convinced forceps would be able to get the magnet out if the fish was properly sedated, but surgical extraction was on the table as the final option.
Meanwhile, Tadpole was acting normal besides this huge bulge in his belly that seemed to rotate around inside him. Obviously, everything magnetic was removed from his tank and we continued to monitor him. With no immediate extraction possible we took the risk of feeding him one of his normal meals – a defective unsaleable clownfish. Since it seemed that the magnet did rotate inside of him, there was a chance it wouldn’t cause a blockage and we also thought that because on occasion he has regurgitated bones, he may throw up the magnet. He managed to eat fine with the magnet in him but no sign of vomiting. A few days later he did try to regurgitate, but it wouldn’t come up.
Finally, Dr. Scott found a local vet, Dr. Bridge who, with the help of Lisa Vettoretti the practice manager at Sault Ste Marie Ontario Animal Hospital, agreed to do the procedure. We spoke on the phone and Lisa informed me she had some experience with freshwater fish and sounded entirely confident that the procedure could be done.
It was very clear that all involved were doing desperate fishkeepers a favor, and the cost of the surgery certainly reflected that. They were both very excited to help an animal lover and to learn and perform an extremely unusual procedure.
Do Not Resuscitate
After taking him in for the extraction, they went over everything with me, including that if they could not remove it through his mouth that surgery was an option and they were confident they could get it out that way. I even had to sign a DNR which was a bit surprising, but also a media release that provided me with these shots from the extraction.
Since this was a traditional vet, not an aquatic vet, MS-222 was not available which is the usual drug used to anesthetize fish (along with clove oil, which can be risky to use). Alfaxalone was used for sedation. They informed me there was data on its use in both goldfish and crayfish, so they had a starting point and then took it slow and proceeded with caution.
Thankfully, they were able to remove the magnet orally, and the coatings on the cleaning magnet held up fine inside his belly for over two weeks. It looks exactly as it did going in, but it will not be going back on the tank, obviously. In total, he was sedated for upwards of 20 minutes. Recovery was a bit strange in that he had buoyancy issues. If this was another species of fish they could have punctured his swim bladder, but all frogfish other than sargassum frogfish do not have a swim bladder. They attempted to “burp” any air out of him but the buoyancy issues remained. They offered to do an X-Ray to confirm it was air inside of him, but with no means of fixing it, and the fact he had to be removed from the water for the X-Ray which could cause him to swallow even more air, we decided to take him home.
After looking like he’d drop dead at any second, he managed to grab onto the rockwork and force himself to stay submerged. He looked terrible, but alive. After another day his condition improved and he finally was able to eat again. Besides some very minor damage around his lips and a scratch on his side, he was completely back to normal. Now that a few days have passed he has eaten again and continues to make what we can pretty safely say is a full recovery.
Don’t give up on your fish if you don’t have to. While our worry was finding a fish vet, and finding out how expensive, or in this case inexpensive it would be, everyone from the forums to the vets were very helpful and we knew we gave it our best. Thankfully it worked out and Tadpole will hopefully live for many more years.
This article was contributed to Reef Builders by reader and caring frogfish owner Andrew Kwon. Thanks to Andrew for sharing his story with us.
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