Way to go Allimar
Keep them separate!
Dudley started extremely heavy breathing and coughing this afternoon. This evening I took action and did "surgery" on him. Scott Michael says that once they eat a too big food item and it starts to decompose it causes gases in their ailementary tract that then causes them to float. Once floating sets in the die within 2 to 3 days. He has tried asperating the tract with sea water to no avail, and tried removal of food item with tweezers usually unsucessfully. He says if you are able to remove it sometimes they may die anyway. Not very good odds are they? Anyway I took action as Dudley was ballooning up and breathing so very hard. I have a pair of my father's watchmaker's needle nose tweezers. One end is very sharp pointed, the other a rounded blunt like a tongue depresser. I tried to hold him in my left hand and insert the blunt end in his pinched open cheeks to trace the food route. A lot of white rotten smelling liquid spewed out. Once the food route was found I used the tweezer end to try and pull out the hawkfish. I got a couple of small pieces and was polluting the tank water terribly. I removed Dudley to a paper towel on the kitchen counter and proceeded to do the same thing with positive results. I pulled a huge hunk of decaying fish from his stomach. He looked dead after the "surgery" but upon closer examination there was a trace of life. I said Lord, you've got me this far I'm going to leave it up to you if he lives or not. I took him back to the tank and after one minute his gills started moving. He could not right himself so I just held him in proper position in my hand. 2 minutes later his tail moved. I reposioned him back beside the toadstool leather (his favorite spot) and he's been sitting there for about a half hour now with respiration not near as labored as before surgery. If he lives I know who to give credit to
At least he has a chance now. He had none before. I'll post again sometime tomorrow. Say some prayers for Dudley tonight
Thanks