Apisto with a dislocated jaw

Posting this on behalf of my dad

He has a male Apistogramma Pebas, which a couple of days ago was pale and lying on his side gasping. Dad did a 50% change and the apisto immediately improved. But yesterday dad noticed that it's swimming about with it's mouth agape, and it really doesn't seem to be able to close it. The odd thing is that its colours have come back really vividly (dad said it's so vivid it's like breeding colours), and it is swimming about again.

It sounds to me like it's dislocated it's jaw. I have read that with larger fish you can attempt to put the jaw back into place, but there's no way that'll be possible with such a small fish. It's the only cichlid in the tank, and there isn't really anything in there that it would fight with, so it must have happened whilst it was gasping?

Dad has checked, there's definitely nothing obstructing or stuck in the mouth, and the gills don't seem affected either. I told him to feed the tank and see if the apisto can feed, and said hopefully it'll heal of it's own accord in a few days if it's lucky. But does anyone have any other ideas? I know that fish can go for a few weeks without food, so it starving isn't a worry for now. But the stress it must be under because of it is, and I'm concerned that it could develop secondary infections as a result?

Doesn't look good at the moment, if the jaw doesn't go back into place by itself, dad will have to euthanise it. Just wanted to see if anyone else has any ideas or experience of this before it comes to that?

Thanks!

No ideas i'm afraid, all I can say is i'd be doing what you said.

Hope the poor guy recovers.

Me too, he's a stunning fish

Hi flute are you feeding frozen blood worm bay any chance ive lost a lost of apistos from this always male there is no helping him now im afraid ive tried lots of times and they just dont recover then
After searching the web for hour i found mark breeze who is one of the best apisto breeders in the country had the same problem and found when he stopped feeding frozen blood worm it stopped
ive not feed bloodworm for about 2 years now and ive not lost a fish to this problem which before i was losing male on a regular basis

I remembered you and Rusty mentioning that on the old forum, so I told dad not to feed them bloodworm any more just in case, so as far as I'm aware he hasn't done so in months.

I think the only time he's tried them with it since was last night, just so that he could see clearer if the fish is capable of eating.

I'll give dad a ring tonight and see if anything has improved. Thanks for the advice Steve, I'll pass it on.

Just thought I'd update this;

Dad hasn't been able to find him for days. So sadly it looks like he didn't make it

Oh thats a real shame, sorry to hear that.

Tis a huge shame, he was such a stunning fish.