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Help!

cursing myself was moving my Lima and some barbs and for the life of me had a brain fart and moved the lima in a normal fish net ,despite having items for moving my cats so they don’t get tangled etc

Anyway once I clicked on I tried to remove the net but the Lima was attached via its left pectoral fin, the fish panicked and pulled hard its about 8" in size and to my despair it may have a broken pectoral fin, I tried to gently remove the net but no joy, unable to free the poor creature I had to cut the net round the fin , now it has a piece of net attached.

The fish to be fair is swimming about and doesn’t appear bothered but the idiot mistake i made.

If the fin is broken will it heal ?

Would the remaining net need removed for it to heal ?

Is it better to let the net to fall off itself (assuming it does)

Manual removal of the netting wont be easy and will stress the fish but say it does fall off will i need to attempt this ?

With the net being attached to the fin is their an increased risk of a bacterial / fungal infection over time ?


Suggestions ?

I don't have a lot of advice, but I can't see how the net will fall off on its own safely. It won't degrade fast enough, which means it will only come off by catching on things and being pulled, which may worsen the damage. There are ways to sedate fish (I've only seen them used at extreme levels for euthanasia, but at lower levels they are sedatives) so that could be an option for safe removal.

This is a common occurrence. Usually the net piece falls off on its own sooner or later. This is a pretty intricate, entangled snag though, so I can't be sure.

What do you mean the pec fin broke? The leading spine-ray appears intact, no? Are you talking about the split fin? That will heal fine but after the net gets off.

The net piece won't cause problems per se but if it remains for too long, it will not let the fin restore its integrity.

I'd probably give it a week or two and if there not a even a tad of improvement in the net coming off, I'd catch the fish, have someone hold it (can use leather gloves) so I have two hands, take a real sharp razor and once the fish exhausts itself from struggling, I'd cut the net off. The spine it is on is hard as bone, so it's not easy to damage even with a razor.

Or cut away as much as you can, so the rest if easier to dislodge on its own.

Thanks for the advice folks.

Regarding the broken pec fin im not 100% sure if its broken but it has no visible movement in the fin which could be due to the netting or the strain of me retracting the net while the fish tried to escape.
I will give the fish a couple of weeks so see if the net comes off , and if not I will manually remove.

I have Koi calm which I use to euthanize in large doses when needed (thankfully not often) , or hold the fish until its exhausted and then remove but I will have someone assist so I have both hands free for removal if it comes to that.

Cheers

Common problem for this species. Same problem for sturgeon cat.

I would further cut the net off (100% if possible) or just leave only tiny bits.

Quick update , was planning on manual removal at the end of this week, but woke up to find that the netting is off the pectoral fin but so is part of the fins spine.

On the plus side the fish has regained movement on the fin and is swimming about care free.

will the spine regrow ?

With that much of the spine left, it usually grows back fine and the fin restores itself. It is not uncommon though for some deformation to occur too.

Thats good to know ,Thanks Victor