Almost Lost My Fish!, So Do I Get Sand?

[guppy grandma]

What a do.. was walking past my fish tank earlier today and turned to speak to the fish and noticed that Oscar was in difficulty. When I looked closer she had a big piece of gravel stuck in her mouth and was really stuggling. Being very new to to this fish thing I didn't know what to do, so rightly or wrongly I got a piece of wood that had a plastic tip and gently tapped on the side of her mouth. After a few minutes of this the gravel shot out and she was ok, funny thing is she let me do it.

She dosn't seem to have suffered any damage and is back to her sunny self, but this has made me wonder about putting sand in the tank instead of gravel.

Opinions would be gratefully received

 

[bruinsbro1997]

What a do.. was walking past my fish tank earlier today and turned to speak to the fish and noticed that Oscar was in difficulty. When I looked closer she had a big piece of gravel stuck in her mouth and was really stuggling. Being very new to to this fish thing I didn't know what to do, so rightly or wrongly I got a piece of wood that had a plastic tip and gently tapped on the side of her mouth. After a few minutes of this the gravel shot out and she was ok, funny thing is she let me do it.

She dosn't seem to have suffered any damage and is back to her sunny self, but this has made me wonder about putting sand in the tank instead of gravel.

Opinions would be gratefully received

Sand is fine, but so is gravel. You can try finer grained gravel, its small and they can't choke on it.