Help!! African cichlid choking

[Sicklidcommunity]

I have a 40 gallon 4.5ft aquarium with 9 cichlids in it ( all juvenile) . And one venustus always ends up eating the most ( hikari and regular pellets mixed) . Today though..he ate around 10 pellets and started choking . I immediately removed him and took the food out from his mouth..doesn't look like he will survive though..any suggestions???

 

[Demeter32]

Either very small pellets or flakes should be given to smaller Africans. I personally would not of panicked and taken the food out of your fish's mouth. I've had a livingstonii that would take an entire algae wafer in it's mouth and keep it from the others. It could not eat it whole but that didn't stop her. Many of my smaller cichlids will hold pellets in their mouths and "chew" until they soften enough to be swallowed/torn apart.

Unless you see your fish having legit problems with breathing (floating on it's side, sticking near the surface) you should not assume they are choking. In fact, the only time a fish would choke is if it tried to eat a smaller fish or decided to eat a rock/plastic plant. All pellets will dissolve in the water and even if a fish is "choking" the problem will resolve itself after a few minutes. You may have done more harm than good by manually removing the food. I'm sure it caused the fish a lot of stress.

As a side note, venustus need a far larger tank than a 40gal once they mature.
http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/n_venustus.php