CichlidFish.com - Fish That Think.

My red tiger oscar has decided to try and eat my little brothers juvenile blue claw yabbie, and seems to have the thing lodged in his throat. Its been this way all night now and he is just sitting at the bottom of the tank motionless, occasionally trying to free the thing from his throat. I thought he might have been able to get it out by now, but he is starting so go a very dark colour and is starting to really worry me. Would it be wise to try and pull him out of the water and try and pull it out, or will this cause him more damage???

Wow, that's a tough call!  If it were I, I think I'd try removing the crayfish.  The problem is to do so without causing more injury or excessive stress to your O.  Try lifting him out of there using a large towel.  Slide it under him, and pull the towel out with him in it.  Try to lie him (in the towel with his head sticking out) on a flat surface.  While gently holding him in place, try to remove the crayfish.  You may need to break or cut the crayfish up to do this.  Be as careful as you can, but it doesn't sound as if you have a lot of choice but to intervene.  Maybe someone else here has a better idea, but that's all I can think of right now.

My small Midas has a piece of a plastic  plant top stuck in her/his mouth. I finally saw it and after getting her netted in a bucket with water, I got some LONG needle nose plyers and  got it out farily easy. Do the what Dan said about getting him out.. GET the plyers NOW and wash them in hot water NO soap.. I would net him out first, then do this on the floor and wrap the towel around hiim to keep him still and so he wont' hurt his self.. YOU have 2 min to do this in and you should see the crayfish faily easily.. Take his lower jaw and gently pull it down to open,  USE the plyers to get a good grab on the crayfish and gently pull it out.. IT might be dead or not..GET out as much as you can, the big pieces anyway if it breaks off.. Be careful as he might shake/jump some so be careful not to stab hiim with the pylers.. Place him back into the tank as soon as you can...

Thanks for your ideas, but i couldnt wait and already did it yesterday.I netted him fairly easy and placed him on some bubble wrap so he would hurt himself, then used a set of pliers and removed half of the cray. He was able to spit the rest over the next couple of hours... phew. i was getting so worried. But he seems to be back to his normal self, eating pellets from my hand and chasing my other fish around. Thank you very much guys... muchly appreciated

Very happy to hear everything worked out!!!

Ok, no crayfish and no pictus catfish ...  all these horror stories!!!  My O will remain alone.