Fish choked to death on food - anything I could have done?

[Kingman]

Today, my male Lyretail Anthias ate a larger piece of meaty food from a frozen mix (don’t want to name names). I usually break them up, but this one got through a little larger than normal. I watched him grab this piece of food, let go of it, and then decide to go for it and swallowed it whole. I was shocked, but then he swam off acting normal. About 10 or 15 minutes afterwards, I looked at the tank and noticed him on the sandbed against the glass, went over to the tank and saw that he had the chunk of food is his mouth and looked to be trying to throw it up unsuccessfully and he looked to be in bad shape. I scooped him up and attempted to extract it with a pair of tweezers, but it was not solid enough to remove and he perished shortly afterwards. I panic-searched the forum, and didn’t see anything about this, so thought I would post and maybe it would help someone else in the future. After his death, I was able to remove the food with a different pair of tweezers. Is there anything else that could have been done to help in this situation?

 

[KrisReef]

Bummer. There probably isn't a Heimlich maneuver for fishes, it was noble for you to try.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Today, my male Lyretail Anthias ate a larger piece of meaty food from a frozen mix (don’t want to name names). I usually break them up, but this one got through a little larger than normal. I watched him grab this piece of food, let go of it, and then decide to go for it and swallowed it whole. I was shocked, but then he swam off acting normal. About 10 or 15 minutes afterwards, I looked at the tank and noticed him on the sandbed against the glass, went over to the tank and saw that he had the chunk of food is his mouth and looked to be trying to throw it up unsuccessfully and he looked to be in bad shape. I scooped him up and attempted to extract it with a pair of tweezers, but it was not solid enough to remove and he perished shortly afterwards. I panic-searched the forum, and didn’t see anything about this, so thought I would post and maybe it would help someone else in the future. After his death, I was able to remove the food with a different pair of tweezers. Is there anything else that could have been done to help in this situation?

Sorry to hear and not much you could have done to save it if particle was stuck. I have a pilot fish that overeats and will have so much in its mouth that I expected the same result but rather will digest as fast as it can and look for more to eat which is ridiculous.
Most food brands will have various sizes of their formulas. I have 4 anthias and they get LRS nano frenzy which is very small bits and tangs get the LRS herbivore frenzy note suitable for their mouths.

 

[Kingman]

@KrisReef - appreciate the kind words.
@vetteguy53081 - thank you for the feedback. I’ve been using the regular, not nano mix, as I have some larger fish as well (but still breaking up the large pieces). Do you feed the nano mix first to help reduce the likelihood of the smaller fish going for larger food?

 

[vetteguy53081]

@KrisReef - appreciate the kind words.
@vetteguy53081 - thank you for the feedback. I’ve been using the regular, not nano mix, as I have some larger fish as well (but still breaking up the large pieces). Do you feed the nano mix first to help reduce the likelihood of the smaller fish going for larger food?

Nano mix first yes as it will reduce their desire to chase the large particles but breaking down is also fine.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Today, my male Lyretail Anthias ate a larger piece of meaty food from a frozen mix (don’t want to name names). I usually break them up, but this one got through a little larger than normal. I watched him grab this piece of food, let go of it, and then decide to go for it and swallowed it whole. I was shocked, but then he swam off acting normal. About 10 or 15 minutes afterwards, I looked at the tank and noticed him on the sandbed against the glass, went over to the tank and saw that he had the chunk of food is his mouth and looked to be trying to throw it up unsuccessfully and he looked to be in bad shape. I scooped him up and attempted to extract it with a pair of tweezers, but it was not solid enough to remove and he perished shortly afterwards. I panic-searched the forum, and didn’t see anything about this, so thought I would post and maybe it would help someone else in the future. After his death, I was able to remove the food with a different pair of tweezers. Is there anything else that could have been done to help in this situation?

Sorry to hear. I don’t think there was much you could have done. On a side note - fossil fish have been found having choked on other fish, so although uncommon, it’s been happening forever to fish.

 

[Kingman]

Sorry to hear. I don’t think there was much you could have done. On a side note - fossil fish have been found having choked on other fish, so although uncommon, it’s been happening forever to fish.

Thank you for taking the time to respond Jay. Appreciate all that you and @vetteguy53081 do for the community!