Stupid Krib

[shrimply]

My female cichlid ha been swimming around with a very large fish flake in her mouth for the last ten minutes and she soesn't seem to be able to swallow it or spit it out. What should I do?

 

[Ami]

My female cichlid ha been swimming around with a very large fish flake in her mouth for the last ten minutes and she soesn't seem to be able to swallow it or spit it out. What should I do?

Erm...if it's a fish flake it will get soggy surely and then break up?

Certain fish quite often carry food around for a while - it's their way of making sure they get their fair share I think!

I wouldn't worry too much Shrimply, I'm sure she'll be fine.

Ami

 

[shrimply]

Thanks I also decided I had over reacted not long after I posted. She did cary the whole flake (three times the size of a a regular one) , all scrunched up in her mouth for about 1/2 an hour before it dissapeared.

Don't fish usually spit out to large flakes and wait till they break up? I can't understand what made her swallow such a large flake whole it it's kind of strange to think the whole flake is now inside her. That is like us swollowing a pancake 15ft across whole.

 

[Native American]

Nearly all species populations operate at the edge of starvation. More food? The local population increases to match the availability of nutrition in the environment.

When you're a fish and a big ol' hunk of food comes your way, too big or not, you're going to grab it and figure out later how to engulf it. That's just instinct. There are even fossils showing the deadly results of glluttony (fish skeleton inside a fish skeleton). It's just instinct from millions of years of survival.

Hmmm, time to have lunch!

v/r, N-A