How to tube feed your fish
 

This video will go over how to tube feed a fish.

It is a simple and rapid procedure that has proven safe and effective method of delivering food.

It also likely has value in the adminstration of medications that do not go into solution.


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Great video! Thanks for posting.

OK I'm ready to learn some more. Was there commentary?

Bowl 1 SW.
Bowl 2 something to knock them out.

Care to elaborate?

There was narration to the video. Looks like something got erased on YouTube's end. Will update video.

Just checked it. The captions to the Video are working fine on my desktop. The do not appear on my IPad. Not sure, something to work on.

From YouTube:

Notes
•Annotations appear on standard YouTube players and embedded players.
•Annotations do not appear on mobile (m.youtube.com, Android or iPhone)
•Annotations do not appear on custom YouTube chromeless players.

You want a medium sedation - I use 25 ppm of Finquel aka MS-222 or tricaine. I will create a post for fish sedation one of these days. In short it is based on dose, temp, duration in the bath, and thickness of the gill membranes. Smaller fish tend to respond faster, but 25 ppm is about right for this procedure. My water temp was 70F.

Once fish it out, insert tube and inject food, meds, whatever. It took around 18s in the video. I have been using pulverized shad roe. I've also tried soaked flakes with the same results.

Place fish into clean water and create movement over gills.

Then fish goes back to tank.

It is not difficult

I'm still working on the best type of feeding tube.

Gel loading tips work pretty well :)

I thought about the pipette tip. They would need to be cut to allow passage of solids. I was also looking for something softer and hopefully not tapered.

Thx for the input. Much appreciated.

The tubes feeds ended on Wed and the clown loved the flake food tonight. I hope that this demonstrates the one can sustain a fish refusing to eat.

I was just linked to this thread because of a regal angel I have. Great video... you do make it look easy, but I'm nervous about injuring the fish's insides. Did you find a good tube to use? I was thinking about some of the larger fluid line we have at work, used in chromatography equipment... similar to this, but larger ID...
http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Ru2xF3Ij-y...+FPLC+Used.JPG

How soft or hard is best? And how to you know how far down to go?

Also, this may sound crass, but would you recommend practicing on a large damsel or similar first? :o

That is awewome!
Where can you buy : "I use 25 ppm of Finquel aka MS-222 or tricaine."

Do you need to have a vet order it for you or can you order it online for hobby use.

Thanks!

I actually looked it up. DFS sells it.

http://www.drsfostersmith.com/produc...m?pcatid=12271

I'm surprised this thread came back to life. For a while, I thought I was the only one who had ever had a fish that refused to eat. Man I was slammed on other threads for posting this.

Hopefully it can help you save your regal.

The tubing might work. You need a large enough caliber tube to allow passage of the food, under minimal pressure and at a fast speed but also it needs to fit through the esophagus of the fish and be soft enough to avoid trauma. I have a feeling that pushing the food through will be slow, possibly clog and under a high pressure. If it is all you have, use it.

With extremely emaciated fish, DO NOT start with high fats and protein. Add some table sugar to the water - remember the Krebs cycle. Also Mazuri makes a fish gel.

I would use a mixture of pedialyte, and ground flake food to start. After about 10 days start to add something oily like fish roe, mackerel, or even cod liver oil or krill oil from GNC.
With regals, I place fresh oyster on the half shell in the aquarium to entice picking.

You will have a PM

A follow up on the clownfish - it lived on tube feeds for about 6 weeks. Never became skinny. It eventually was given back to the LFS where I purchased it and is probably in someones tank today.

Alprazo, thank you for the information provided and video. Well preformed.

+1.

I have benefited from and appreciate alprazo's unconventional methods.

I've been referred here with the issue I am having with my Centropyge deborae and it not eating. Today I noticed what appears to be the start of HLLE after it refusing to eat for almost 2 months (hasn't lost or gained wait since purchase), but with HLLE seeming to be starting up I feel that now is the time to force feed.

May I ask what kind of syringe and tubing you used in the video, as well as where you purchase from? I know this was asked before, but wasn't answered; how do you know when you are far enough in the fish with the tubing? Thanks in advance for your help!

I have experimented with several different type of items. The best is a cordis with j-wire but they are expensive and difficult for most to obtain. An angiocath is cheaper but the needle puts the fish at risk and insertion of a wire often punctures the catheter. I wasted a lot of them. For larger fish - rigid airline tubing or chilled flexible tubing works well. If you are trying to give medicine or vitamins, the plastic disposable pipette tips 1 cc will work.

I was working with a company to design one, but set the project aside since very very few people have expressed interest in doing this.

Let me know if you are having trouble and I will try to order you something. You will have to let me know the size of your fish.

Reviving this thread - could this method be used on a fish the size of an OSFF? I've got a female that I'm certain to lose soon. I've got various tiny syringes lying around from test kits (some that have never been used), but don't know what I would use for a tube.

I had my 5-6" long clown loach (freshwater) tube fed at UC Davis veterinary hospital a few times while under anesthesia for antibiotic injections. I believe they used a tube from a catheter. The fish is doing several months later.

Silicone (and other suitable materials) tubing of all sizes can be found online.

Another possibility is "crop needles" for feeding baby birds. Again, there is a huge variety of shapes and sizes available. They have ball ends that are blunt and are designed to fit various syringe tips. I would try rubber tubing first though.

Excellent thread/video! It's refreshing to see a "think outside the box" approach like this!

Ummm I don't know if this is a sticky as it didn't say in the thread but it NEEDS to be.

I have used multiple different tubes, including pex from a plumbing supply for a horn shark. Their back jaws are so strong, you need almost a rigid pipe or to sedate them which is costly. Anyway, for small fish, I have found that angiocaths and cordis used for IVs and central lines work the best. Of course, pull the needle or lead wire before inserting.

Btw I was able to easily tube feed a moorish idol. It can be done for most fish. Some are easier than others. I imagine something like a trigger would have to be sedated, but most fish and small sharks and rays do not.