Barb injured from getting stuck in plant

Last night I was about to feed my pleco and my green barb (brian) before bed, when I noticed I couldn't find Brian in the tank. I looked for several minutes and them noticed him stuck head down in the large fake plant I have in the aquarium. I immediately panicked, I noticed he was still alive and moving, so I lifted the plant and managed to free him. I'm not sure how long he was stuck there, but when I first spotted him, he had turned a brown color. He did gain his color back after a few minutes of being freed, but I also noticed one of his eyes was injured. It's stuck out farther than the other and kind of cloudy and whitish in color. I done a partial water change last night after the incident and shaking all the gunk off of the fake plant trying to get him out, and this morning I put him in isolation box inside of the same tank. He seems to be swimming around fine so far but I was wondering if anyone had advice on what else I could do for him? Like anything I could use in the water to help heal his eye or any other possible injuries im not seeing. As mentioned before I have a pleco in the water as well. I attached a couple pics, one being the eye that is injured. (A bit blurry through the mesh isolation tank)

 

Clean water is your best bet here , do daily water changes until it clears.

adding tannins to the tank will provide some mild , natural anti microbial bacteria , you can use dried Indian almond leaves , other hard wood leaves , alder cones etc.

If you don’t have any other fish that would predate a weak fish id release it back to the tank. You may be causing further stress by keeping it captive , no hiding spaces and a small space . Do you just have the one barb ?

 

Hi:

I'm sorry Brian has been injured. It sounds like you got him out just in time & did the right thing with the immediate water change. Super clean water is going to be the best thing to help him heal & it's going to be time consuming with a pleco in the tank. Plecos produce a lot of waste. Is it a common or bristle nose pleco?

If you could fill out the emergency template it would provide info we need to best help Brian. A full tank photo might help too. I'd remove the plastic plant immediately so there's no chance of your pleco getting injured too.

Again, sorry that this happened. Hope we can help get Brian healed & back on his fins again quickly.

 

Healthy Barbs don't normally get stuck in decor. Chances are the Barb is suffering from a bacteral infection. The swollen, glazed over eye is a symptom of infection.

 

Healthy Barbs don't normally get stuck in decor. Chances are the Barb is suffering from a bacteral infection. The swollen, glazed over eye is a symptom of infection.

This crossed my mind too ! An initial reason why it got stuck

 

Clean water is your best bet here , do daily water changes until it clears.

adding tannins to the tank will provide some mild , natural anti microbial bacteria , you can use dried Indian almond leaves , other hard wood leaves , alder cones etc.

If you don’t have any other fish that would predate a weak fish id release it back to the tank. You may be causing further stress by keeping it captive , no hiding spaces and a small space . Do you just have the one barb ?

Yes, in this tank I only have the one barb and a pleco, and they have always been great around each other in the tank. I used to have several barbs with this one, but soon had to separate them because the others were picking on him. (almost to death) I know theyre supposed to do better in groups, but honestly, I think hes been happier since I put the others in a different tank! And I do have a liquid tannin additive for the water, would that work the same?

This crossed my mind too ! An initial reason why it got stuck

That could be, I will add tho, his eye wasn't like this until this incident. Ive never really had any problems with him other than this, no signs of disease, etc. Im not sure how long he was stuck in the plant, but I just figured it may have scratched against it and caused the eye to swell like that...?

Healthy Barbs don't normally get stuck in decor. Chances are the Barb is suffering from a bacteral infection. The swollen, glazed over eye is a symptom of infection.

His eye hasn't been like this until he got stuck in the plant. I figured it was due to the plant scratching it or something

Hi:

I'm sorry Brian has been injured. It sounds like you got him out just in time & did the right thing with the immediate water change. Super clean water is going to be the best thing to help him heal & it's going to be time consuming with a pleco in the tank. Plecos produce a lot of waste. Is it a common or bristle nose pleco?

If you could fill out the emergency template it would provide info we need to best help Brian. A full tank photo might help too. I'd remove the plastic plant immediately so there's no chance of your pleco getting injured too.

Again, sorry that this happened. Hope we can help get Brian healed & back on his fins again quickly.

He is a common pleco. And I actually removed the plant right after I got Brian out of it. Where can I fill out the emergency form?

 

Hi:

I'm sorry Brian has been injured. It sounds like you got him out just in time & did the right thing with the immediate water change. Super clean water is going to be the best thing to help him heal & it's going to be time consuming with a pleco in the tank. Plecos produce a lot of waste. Is it a common or bristle nose pleco?

If you could fill out the emergency template it would provide info we need to best help Brian. A full tank photo might help too. I'd remove the plastic plant immediately so there's no chance of your pleco getting injured too.

Again, sorry that this happened. Hope we can help get Brian healed & back on his fins again quickly.

He is a common pleco. And I actually got the plant out right after I got Brian out of it.

Hi:

I'm sorry Brian has been injured. It sounds like you got him out just in time & did the right thing with the immediate water change. Super clean water is going to be the best thing to help him heal & it's going to be time consuming with a pleco in the tank. Plecos produce a lot of waste. Is it a common or bristle nose pleco?

If you could fill out the emergency template it would provide info we need to best help Brian. A full tank photo might help too. I'd remove the plastic plant immediately so there's no chance of your pleco getting injured too.

Again, sorry that this happened. Hope we can help get Brian healed & back on his fins again quickly.

He is a common pleco. And I actually removed the plant right after I got Brian out of it. Where can I fill out the emergency form?
I think he is having some trouble seeing now, at night he tends to get stuck behind the filter and it's like I have to move it for him to back out from behind it. What should I do because I'm clueless on this one. Otherwise he has been swimming around like normal.

 

Click this link emergency template. You can copy and paste it