# Fish spitting out food



## dipseydodunkaroo (Jun 15, 2009)

I just bought a peacock from a LFS and i brought him home and put him in a 29gal. to let him grow out a little and he is spitting out food i give him. He will take the food in his mouth and either spit it out again or out his gills. What shoud i do, is it just stress or is something wrong?


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## BurgerKing (Jul 1, 2008)

Maybe the food is too big for him to swallow. I'm not sure what you're feeding him but maybe try smaller pellets of flakes. I wouldn't worry too much about it though, my fish do it all the time.


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## S&amp;T (Jul 27, 2009)

Agreed, if the pellet is too big for him he is going to spit it out and take it back in a few times before he can eat it. Hopefully that is what your fish is doing. I know with the guys I have in my tank, they grab as many pellets as they can so the others don't get them and try to go to the other side of the tank to eat them. The ones that didn't get any will wait for them to spit one out and snag it on him.


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## ladybugzcrunch (Jul 26, 2009)

Watch out for bloat! Fish that are in the early stages of bloat still want to eat but can not swallow so they spit the food out after they engulf it. Other symptoms of early bloat are long stringy clearish poo. As others suggested, try flakes. If it spits those too, I would be concerned about bloat.


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## BoostedX (Mar 1, 2009)

My fish can be pigs.. They will just get a ton of food in their mouth and realize that they cant swallow all of it and spit a decent amount out till they can swallow it.


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## dipseydodunkaroo (Jun 15, 2009)

i am feeding flakes and i thought it was just stress beacuse of being new and being on an hours car ride home, is this possible should i wait a little to see if he turns around? Or should i treat for bloat just to be safe?


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## DJRansome (Oct 29, 2005)

Bloat treatment is harsh and you wouldn't want to treat for it unless it was confirmed (white thready poop).

It could be that he needs to acclimate. How long has he been in the tank? Normally you would not feed a fish for the first 24 hours. What is pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate?


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## dipseydodunkaroo (Jun 15, 2009)

he was just put in there prob about 2:00 or so so only a couple house i will let him settle from the trip and being in a new place. The tank has no ammonia no nitrites and nitrates around 20 ppm. I will see how tom goes then update hopefully he is eating


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## smellsfishy1 (May 29, 2008)

Ask the place you bought it from for some of the food they were feeding it.
If this food is accepted then fair to say no bloat.
Just give it some time to adjust to the new food or buy the food it has been eating and sneak in some of the new one gradually until there is no preference.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Even though he is new, I would be concerned if he was trying to eat but unable to.

How are things today?


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## dipseydodunkaroo (Jun 15, 2009)

its still not looking good i am going to call the place and see what they were feeding to see if he will eat that. I tried two diff foods, tetra cichlid flakes and also spirulina flakes and he did the same for both


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## dipseydodunkaroo (Jun 15, 2009)

Also if this help at all the fish never has his fins shown. His pelvic fin is always pushed up against his body along with his anal fin. His top fin is always laying on his body also and i never see him swimming much when i look at the tank compared to other fish. Any suggestions on what to do so he does not die?


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

This could indicate that he's either sick or extremely stressed.

Is he in this tank alone?

What are the water parameters?


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