# Spitting out food



## ejk30005 (Nov 17, 2007)

I have a yellow lab who eats and spits out flake food constantly. He has been doing this for over a week. He feeds like all the other fish and looks healthy but I'm thinking this is some kind of digestive disease. Anyone have any information on it?


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## morzan280 (Jul 10, 2008)

dose he actually eat any or is he spitting ALL of it out. if he is just spitting some of it out then its nothing to worry about. *** noticed that they like to go after bigger pieces, chew them,then spit them out and move on to another piece of food.


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## ejk30005 (Nov 17, 2007)

I'm not sure. He spits out quite a bit. He does look healthy though.


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## daywalker7 (Jun 22, 2008)

did you change the food recently ? or he might be full and doesn't want to eat all of the flake


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## noki (Jun 13, 2003)

daywalker7 said:


> did you change the food recently ? or he might be full and doesn't want to eat all of the flake


Cichlid full? :lol: :lol: :lol: C'mon, they will eat until they are in great physical pain.

Sometimes if they can't swallow the food as is, they will barf it out and eat it again. If the fish is really spitting out all the food, it is sick.


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## ibr3ak (Jan 4, 2008)

What color is his poop?


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## ejk30005 (Nov 17, 2007)

I haven't changed the food. I don't know what color his poop is. He feeds as if he is hungry. I thought I read about a disease with these symptoms but I can't find anything on it now.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

It sounds like your Yellow lab may have some sort of illness.

How long has this tank been set up?

What size tank is it?

What are the water parameters on the tank?

What is your usual tank maintenance routine?

Have you lost any fish recently?

Any reclusive behaviour? White stringy feces?

Are all the other fish eating?

You're going to need to closely observe the tank for a bit for further symptoms. For now, I would add epsom salt to the tank at 1 cup per 100G as a preventative measure - make sure you dissolve it in tank water first. You might also take a look at the links regarding treating bloat below, since this may be what you're dealing with.


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## ejk30005 (Nov 17, 2007)

It's a 46 gallon tank with 9 fish. All of the fish eat well at feeding time including this one except he spits out the food. He doesn't give up though. He keeps eating. From an activity standpoint you can't tell him apart from the other fish. He also looks exactly the same as the other two yellow labs in the tank. The tank has been set up since about the first of the year. I change about 25% of the water weekly. I add buffer and salt to the replaced water. The water tests great. No ammonia, no nitrites, low nitrates, ph of 8.0, temperature is a constant 78 degrees. I have had no fish deaths since the tank was set up except when I added a second Acei who was killed by the first one within hours. This happened a few weeks after I added fish and I have had no incidents since.


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## cichlidaholic (Dec 7, 2005)

Anytime you have a fish spitting food and you haven't just changed the food, you probably have some problems.

Especially when dealing with smaller tanks for these guys, you always have to take a look at the stress level in the tank.

What is the remaining stock list, other than the 3 Yellow labs? (They are likely your more timid species, and really do much better health/stress wise in larger groups than this, so it may be your stocking choices that are the stressor in the tank.)

What are you feeding them? How often? How long does it take them to consume the amounts you offer at each feeding?

Everything else sounds in order, so I would add the epsom salt and watch the tank very closely. You might even try fasting them for a couple of days, and then try feeding again and see if he/she still spits the food. If so, I would consider using one of the bloat treatments below.

You can do it two ways. You can remove the one that isn't eating to a small hospital tank and treat the water column (not the best mode of treatment, IMO) and then feed the main tank medicated food to prevent further problems. Or, you can treat the water column in the main tank AND feed medicated antiparasitic food. If this is bloat, it's possible that you have other fish infected and they just aren't showing symptoms yet.

You're looking for reclusive behaviour, white stringy feces, bloating OR emaciation, along with the refusal of food or lack of interest in food. Unfortunately, the symptoms can be rather vague, but once they start spitting food and not eating, it can be very difficult to turn things around.


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## Malawi Hawk (Dec 3, 2007)

Good Luck. Hope everything works out.


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