oh no....

[SeymourFRESH]

well, last night i noticed something funny with my OB peacock.

first i noticed it was not eating, then i noticed that its lower jaw was cocked up slightly, making its mouth look unusual. as i observed it more, it appears to have a large lump on it's throat.

i'm afraid it might have swallowed too big of a piece of food and is choaking...either that, or bit into a chunk of part of my omega one flakes...

it's been like this for over a day now...is there actually anything i can do about this?

 

[7Enigma]

Well its certainly not choking if its been over a day!

If its food, it should slowly break down and either be eaten or expelled by the fish. I would do a pea treatment AFTER the situation fixes itself to make sure it isn't constipated if it manages to eat it.

This is one reason why I pre-wet all of the food that goes into the tank that can physically fit in a fish's mouth. Algae tabs (unbroken) are the only foods I will just drop in. The rest go in a dixie cup with tank water first. What can happen with freeze-dried food or just dry food is that if eaten immediately (most likely to happen) the food has not yet had time to absorb water. When it absorbs it expands, and if in a bad place such as the mouth/gut can get lodged and cause problems. When I feed FD krill, I always laugh at the tigers who each will have a chunk of shrimp hanging out of their mouths slowly trying to swallow it. If these weren't pre-wet, I would bet some of these would have been chomped on that couldn't otherwise have happened, and gotten stuck.

 

[Fishyfanatic]

Do you have both a male and female in the tank? It could be holding fry. Take a look at the pic in my gallery of the cobalt Mbuna. Does it look like that?

 

[SeymourFRESH]

alright, what is a "pea treatment"?

nope, i'm pretty sure it's not fry and it's not holding eggs, for it is the only OB peacock. i have it with an albino peacock, but they're both only 2" and i'm pretty sure both are males

 

[7Enigma]

Peas are used as laxatives in fish (probably work in us too, but I hate peas ). I feed them about once a week to clear out the digestive system. If your fish is eating the thing lodged in the mouth I would recommend a pea treatment just to be sure everything passed.

What I do:

-put the frozen peas in a glass cup and fill with 1/4cup of water

-microwave until the water is boiling

-let the peas sit in the hot water for about a minute

-then I drain them on a paper towel

-Then I pop them aiming into the tank like you would be trying to shoot a marble (or a zit, yuck)

-This keeps the skins in your hand and not in the tank because I find my fish don't touch the skins and they just sit around

 

[SeymourFRESH]

ah, that's what i figured you meant. i haven't fed peas to my fish and a while, i'll have to try your method for sure

but unfortunately, it's been over 48 hours and the fish isn't looking any better. it's swimming around and appears to be alright, but its jaw and throat still appear to not be looking normal