# Can a fish Choke?



## John N. (Dec 11, 2005)

By choke I mean like get fish food stuck in their mouths causing problems?

Reason I ask is I have a few Endlers, and I fed them a few bloodworms, and their mouths are tiny! So tiny that when they eat the worm, half the worm is sticking out for about 10-15 minutes. When I first saw it happen, I thought I killed the poor guys. But given time, it just sucked it right down..

So it made me think..can a fish choke?

-John N.


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## ShortFin (Jan 13, 2006)

I have never seen a fish choke on a bloodworm or blackworm. But I have guppies before that choke and die on a mosquito larvae.


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## JanS (Apr 14, 2004)

Yes, they can get something lodged in their throat and it can be fatal to them.
I'm not sure how food would affect them, or if it would eventually break down, but I don't like to take chances.

I have heard of cases of fish choking on things like a chunk of substrate, a rubber band, another fish, etc.


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## mrbelvedere138 (Jan 18, 2006)

Damn straight they can. I lost a barb because I threw an ant in there.


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## C_perugiae (Feb 26, 2004)

I've seen two or three oscars with goldfish jammed in their mouths and one with a small pleco. I've also met an angelfish who had a short and ugly conversation with a larger pygmy cory, but he actually did survive. The oscars all died of infections after we got the dead fish out of their mouths. I work in a large LFS and people bring in all sorts of crazy stuff, but the choking oscars have always topped my list...


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## Bert H (Mar 2, 2004)

I have guppies, and every so often one will be swimming by with a piece of a Blyxa leaf sticking out of it's mouth. I have to go get my tweezers and grab the leaf as it goes by so I can pull it out from the fish. Thing that gets me, is that these are well fed fish.


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## raven_wilde (Nov 16, 2005)

The first bichir I ever bought choked to death on a worm I had intended for one of his tankmates. The poor little guy was only a baby and the worm was probably almost his size... he swam around forever with the thing hanging out of his mouth and managed to evade my attempts to capture him, only to swim into the rockwork and die later... I found him the next day with the worm still stuck in his mouth. Poor little thing... learned my lesson though.


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