Target Dragonet swallowed a cat hair.

My sweet sweet Target Dragonet named Pickles seems to have half swallowed a cat hair stuck to the live rock. He ate normally but neither swallowed, nor coughed up the hair. I was watching as he was pecking mysis out of a crevis and then it happened, he uncovered the hair and ate It. He's just swimming and walking around with it in his mouth waving around. What should I do? Should I pull it from him? Let him digest it? Say my goodbyes? Sleep soundly? I'm freak. ing. out.

 

Someone else would have to advise you here about what exactly to do, but if it does not appear to be causing him any distress I wouldn't worry too much. It's probably not dangerous, given the sorts of things fish digest on a regular basis. If it's not through a gill or anything he's probably fine and should digest or lose it in his own good time.

 

Well. I'm glad he poo'd it out the next day or I really would have been losing my mind with the lack of advice/consoling =D

Thanks, Einna, you at least put me at ease and I'll definitely remember the gill bit if I notice this happening again. It was just so scary to see him get hung up on a live rock for a second or two with his cat hair waving about.

I've made a habit of blowing love rock crevices clean with a turkey baster to uncover any cat hair or nasty bits during water changes.

 

Not a bad idea.
And that must have been quite upsetting.

 

Is the cat always sitting on top of the tank? How are you getting cat hair in the tank?

 

I have an extremely fluffy cat, and while I'm a clean freak, occasionally it flies or a piece is on my shirt and will fall n during tank maintenance. Don't think my tank is half full of cat hair, but if you own an animal, you know it's impossible to do anything without a hair or two somewhere near you.

 

I have two shi-tzus and they don't shed that's why I bought them but still hair gets every where so I totally know where your coming from, next time that happens if possible catch the fish and try to pull the hair out it's not comfortable having a hair in your mouth. Lol

 

No, don't try to catch him unless it's obviously causing distress. Doing so may cause more stress than it's worth, and trying to restrain it to remove the hair can result in injury. Usually they'll work it out on their own.

Wow, don't I know it! I have a dog that's a perpetual shedder so I'm usually having to pull dog hair off the filter intake screen XD

 

Yeah, I chased him around a bit but decided I may be stressing him so I'd just hoped for the best. My cat has long, long hair so I knew at that point he swallowed a good bit of it, thus me questioning if it was even safe to remove the hair since it was practically as long as Pickles. I just felt like I'd pull out his insides, so I decided to question before I did it. Luckily his digestive system is top notch.

 

Haha. Did you know trout can sometimes even digest fish hooks? Not saying you should try that with Pickles, though, LOL.

 

Craaaazy! And no, Pickles won't be allowed near any hooks, not while he's still living under my roof!

 

I've seen my platies with cat hair hanging out of their mouths; the first time I was worried but they've always been able to digest it. I definitely can empathize with the cat hair...it gets in everything.

 

I haven't read all of these posts but just wanted to say I also have lots of cat hair wandering about and also a lot of fans , so its pretty hard to keep out of the tanks. And actually just today I saw my guppy with not one but a bundle of hair sticking out of her mouth. It looked like she picked it off the filter or something. Anyway, thinking that this just happened, I quickly tried to pull it out. I pulled out a lot (2 inches). Really hoping I didn't tear her intestines :/, the hair came out with a thin orange poop colored gunk around it. This was hours ago and she is acting fine so... lets hope it stays that way.

 

Fingers crossed! That's what I was scared of doing with Pickles. Who knows what you could pull. Ahhh!