Help Reef glue stuck in Clown fish mouth

[guinness0514]

Guys what should I do about this. She took a bite of the glue as I was glueing a frag to an over hang and looks like she glued her mouth shut. Will she die this way? Can she breath? I am afraid I won't be able to catch her to clean it out and sure that would stress her more.. Suggestions?

EDIT: Not trying to freak out, but help?

[guinness0514]

http://i304.photobucket.com/albums/nn178/guinness0514/0de23013.jpg

[guinness0514]

she is acting normal. at first it freaked her out, but she seems to be swimming well. I trew some pelet food in the tank to attempt to get her to move her mouth in hopes it would help with loosening it. She did go after the food. Am I the only one this has ever happened to?

[travis32]

Have you seen it's mouth open and close yet? Depends on the glue too.. The glue I tried yesterday wouldn't have held anything shut in the water. it sorta turned into a cement, but, it really wasn't sticky.. Have you seen it eat food or just chase it?

[guinness0514]

well it is a little hard to see if it formed a seal or not. I can't see the mouth open, but she is acting very normal. it has been about 30 mins. Wait! I just saw her unlodge the bottom jaw and now is breathing.... Whew... now for the milk mustashe...will it pose a problem? Now that she seems to be moving water through her mouth...it's kind of funny.. :)

[Posidion]

man never this is a first for me and possibly for RC as well. i dont have any suggestions at this point. hope all works out for the best.

[Engine8ff]

Hard to say what will happen, but as long as she can eat and move water through her mouth she will take care of the rest. Good luck and keep us posted on what happens.

[guinness0514]

wow...I can't believe I am the first to do this? She seems to be moving and acting fine now. She struggled when she bit the glue and only one other time when she got it lose. She doesn't like my hand in the tank so she was nipping at me...no big deal right?? Well when I felt the rock was secure I removed my hand....she saw the piece I had left and took a nip, but got a spot where the glue was oozing and got a big mouthful. Immediatly she was like ***!!! and darted around for a min then began swimming normally and gills moving good. She looked ok except for the "got milk?" mustache. I started dropping food pelets in the tank and she immediately went for them, but didn't seem to eat any of them. I stuck my hand back into the tank to see if I could induce her to bite me again...she didn't really try, but followed me around the tank. I just watch her chase the swirling food around and I guess she got mad she couldn't eat them and she struggled once more and freed the bottom lip and looks like she could move water through...now the glue is all been removed (by her) whew...I am done...time for a beer.

[dudley moray]

wild!

[Whisperer]

No worries, it will fall off eventually because the clown will produce slime. My cleaner shrimp grabbed a frag with fresh glue and had glued its claws. The glue fell off within an hour.

[travis32]

See not the only one to have this happen. LOL That would be freaky though.. Feel sorry for the lil bugger.

[hartnell]

thanks for sharing!

[sdc19982002]

Never heard of that happening before. I wont lie, I laughed hard at first. But I really do hope things turn out well.

[jimrawr]

Man my wife is sleeping next to me, but when i saw that pic i couldnt stop myself from busting out laughing!!

[Michael]

lol, thats hilarious, im pretty sure he will be ok, that will teach him, bet he doesnt do it again haha.

[TitusvileSurfer]

Oh my gosh! I didn't "lol" but a smirk was certainly conjured when I learned she freed her bottom lip. Shew! What a roller coaster, glad it worked itself out! :)

[njfish77]

Happened to my fire shrimp, it didnt come off for 2 days do i had to grab it off with a tweezer. It pulled his claw off, but it grew back.

[teesquare]

Had it happen with a Clown Tang - it came off in a couple of days. No worries

[IslandCrow]

This is actually the third incident I've heard of with a clownfish. . .plus I've had my own clownfish go after a frag I was gluing, and she just barely missed doing the same thing. Fortunately, it seems in all cases the fish was OK.

[guinness0514]

Yeah she got a huge mouth full. I hadn't read where anyone had deal with this before. I was running around the house trying to figure out how I was gonna get her out and perform surgery to get her mouth open. I am glad I relaxed long enough to not over react. If it would have been a invert, I wouldn't have worried as much cause I know molting would have fixed the issue, but with a little fish like a clown, I didn't know what was to come of her. The fact that she was acting normal even with the glue in her mouth helped a bunch. I could tell she was breathing, so I knew the issue was gonna be with her eating. I knew I had a little more time. I just keep incouraging her to eat pelets and look like it helped. It was a pretty stressful 30 mins. I guess we all know now not to FREAK OUT when it happens again :)

[rafa316]

Close call man! glad she is doing good now