Can fish vomit?

[jessipanda]

Hello everyone!
First, I apologize...this is a really gross topic and if you get queasy with bodily functions, turn back now!

I am currently visiting with a friend who has a few tanks. One of them has a GBR that appears to be vomiting...I've never seen a fish vomit before, only spit out food they keep trying to eat once full. If I didn't see it with my own eyes, I would have simply assumed it was just spitting out food.

So here's what happened: She fed her fish frozen mosquito larvae this morning (about 6 hrs ago). Says she didn't notice anything different about any of their eating habits. When I got to her house about an hour ago, I was watching the fish in this tank when I noticed that her female GBR was spitting out chunks, anywhere from 1-3 chunks every few minutes for a total of about 20 mins before she stopped. During this time, she didn't put anything into her mouth. At first, she was also defecating and the vomit looked like the poop. While she was doing this, she was swimming sort of face down near the surface of the water. Typically, she stays near the bottom unless feeding. She otherwise appears normal and returned to normal behavior after her episode. While watching her for a bit afterwards, I noticed her body appears slightly crooked...kinda like a snake, side to side. Not much, just a little, and I suppose this could have just been from the current and not necessarily a curve in her spine. I immediately jumped on the internet and tried to look into fish vomiting, but can't find anything. Has anyone heard of this before?

Tank specs:
60g community tank lightly planted with a 450gph filter meant for up to 75g. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, about 15-20 nitrate. I'm about to help her do a 50% water change too.

Tank mates:
Male GBR x1
Harlequin rasbora x10
Cardinal tetra x10
Otos x8

All other fish appear fine.
Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Caliban07]

Hexamita? Quite common in cichlids




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[jessipanda]

Hmm...I just looked that up and the only early symptom is slimy white feces, later they can develop hole in the head disease and may swim backwards. So far, none of those apply, but I will tell her to keep an eye out for them. I also didn't find anything about vomiting with hexamita

 

[Andy Sager]

Yes, fish can and do vomit for the same reasons we humans do. It sounds like the fish "bit off more than it could chew" in respect to what it could digest. It may have eaten the pieces with no issues but couldn't digest them so she spit them up.
That's the first thing. The second thing would be to be on the look out for other internal issues ( ie hexamita). If the fish takes in another type of food she regularly eats with no problems but now is vomiting it, you have to consider that either the food went bad or the fish has an internal digestive issue that needs to be dealt with.
If the fish eats another food with no issues, you should consider this vomiting an isolated incidence being mindful of it if it happens again with the same food.

Rams are tricky with respect to foods as they don't have the biggest mouths so their food should really be a smaller size. That may mean chopping the mosquito larvae into smaller pieces before feeding it.

Hope this helps.

 

[jessipanda]

Thanks Andy Sager! I'll pass on the info and have her keep an eye on the ram. Hopefully it was just an isolated issue due to eating too many/too large of larvae.