sick rope fish

Question
When purchasing my rope fish, the employee dropped him twice. Four days later, my rope fish escaped and lay on floor for possibly 30 minutes. he seemed to recover, but 24 hours later he's looking very lethargic. help!

Answer
Hi Laurie

Well first, when the twit at the petstore dropped him twice, you should've requested another fish and preferably another employee to handle him.

Ropefish are escape artist and will find the smallest opening to escape through. It's very important to have all open areas of your tank covered. There are two things you can do at this point...one, take him back to the store. Most petstores have a 14 day return guarantee, especially if you explain to the store that their employee dropped the fish twice when you bought him. Second, just keep an eye on him, he may recover, or he may have internal injuries that he won't recover from. You could try adding some Freshwater Aquarium Salt to the tank to relieve his stress. About 1tsp per 5 gallons.

That's about the best I can give you. It if it were me, I would return him to the store for another one and make sure the same twit doesn't assist you this time.

Hope this helps and good luck with whatever you decide to do.

Richard