Seafood Snub: Do your fish spit their food back out?

[Peace River]

Seafood Snub: Do your fish spit their food back out?

You add food to your tank, the fish eat the food, and then a day or two later you feed them again. It’s easy, until it’s not! Sometimes the fish are finnicky, they have a sore in their mouth or throat, or they are new to the type of food being offered – whatever the reason, the fish will occasionally spit the food back out. Sometimes they will immediately try to eat it again, and sometimes they won’t. What is your experience – do your fish ever spit their food back out? If so, please tell us about your experience and share any tips that you may have!

Photo by @Nan3182


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[Gumbies R Us]

Sometimes my firefish and goby will do it if the pieces are too big

 

[Reefer Matt]

I have puffers and a trigger in my fowlr. They are messy.

 

[Reefkeepers Archive]

This guy will take foods the size of their own head lol, takes them a few tries to swallow it though

 

[randomfishdude]

Mine do it all the time. I've seen a fish spit out and eat food again 5 times before swallowing.

 

[reef tank 2.0]

i am currently experiencing this very thing.

made a DIY food for my two clowns, two banggais, and my blenny. the blenny and clowns will eat with no problem. the banggais are picky AF. they will eat a piece here and there, but i have also seen them take it in spit it out, as well as avoiding it all together.

i believe the workaround for me is that i feed them a mix of my DIY frozen, as well as the frozen blister pack mysis (from the store). they all eat the mysis up with no hesitation. When I mix the two, they'll sometimes go after the DIY without spitting it out. that's the only thing i've been able to do to get them to eat

i still have 5 bags of DIY food to go through, i'll keep trying it in hopes they will eventually eat it with no added foods.

 

[VintageReefer]

My anthias do it, usually because the piece is to big

 

[ChrisfromBrick]

why do they do this? It makes me upset.

 

[nano7g]

Yellow clown goby. Spits out almost everything unless it's live baby brine. It's a food size issue and possibly a freshness issue. Strangely I think it's a quantity/rate issue as well. If I drop just enough, it'll taste and spit. If I add a lot and create a frenzy by squirting food into the tank. It'll hurry up, grab it and swallow it down without spitting.

 

[Gtinnel]

My CBB will spit the food back out a few times on some pieces of food before eating it. I always assumed it was a size issue, because he only does it on the bigger pieces that he is trying to eat with his tiny mouth.

 

[anemonalex]

My lantern bass swallows food whole. My clownfish are messy. But they mostly eat pellets. I notices it's easier if I soak the pellets a minute but not to long

 

[KrisReef]

why do they do this? It makes me upset.

Have you sampled there food?

They have to be starving to eat much of the dried and frozen food that is commonly available.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

My Octopus will throw the shrimp back at me when it’s been thawed for more than 24 hours. Meanwhile we would probably still eat that a week later

 

[JayM]

Mine do it occasionally. It seems with meaty food that it’s to break it down to smaller pieces as they always finish the job. With flakes it seems to be taste preference as certain fish spit out certain colors and then move on to the next piece.

 

[JoJosReef]

My clowns do all the time. They are pigs, but then they decide "nope, not this one" and spit it out. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[KrisReef]

My Octopus will throw the shrimp back at me when it’s been thawed for more than 24 hours. Meanwhile we would probably still eat that a week later

24 hours of warming is plenty of time for the bacteria to degrade a shrimp’s flesh into a poisonous danger. Seafood improperly prepared isn’t a thing to mess around with.

You can still eat rotten fish and seafood if you cook the death out of it but that ruins the palatability of it and often doesn’t fully cover up the rotten taste.

Properly frozen and thawed fish lightly seared is a culinary delight and delicacy that is often underrated.

Ahi mmmmm.

 

[anemonalex]

Have you sampled there food?

They have to be starving to eat much of the dried and frozen food that is commonly available.

Haha. I sprinkle tdo In my pasta. Forget the pepper cracker.

 

[BubblesandSqueak]

24 hours of warming is plenty of time for the bacteria to degrade a shrimp’s flesh into a poisonous danger. Seafood improperly prepared isn’t a thing to mess around with.

You can still eat rotten fish and seafood if you cook the death out of it but that ruins the palatability of it and often doesn’t fully cover up the rotten taste.

Properly frozen and thawed fish lightly seared is a culinary delight and delicacy that is often underrated.

Ahi mmmmm.

Oh I’m talking defrosted in the fridge. I take it out when I go to bed. Still partially frozen in the morning. She would not eat that later.

 

[anemonalex]

Oh I’m talking defrosted in the fridge. I take it out when I go to bed. Still partially frozen in the morning. She would not eat that later.

On the opposite. My giraffe only eats fresh thawed after it has marinated in the tank for 3 days. I figure the ammonia is good for my caulerpa; I have a theory it does this to attract and eat other fauna first.

 

[SnazzyUrchin792]

My clownfish will all randomly spit out food for no apparent reason, and I frequently give my puffer food that is not bite sized, so he will repeatedly bite it and spit it out, shaving off a small piece each time.