fish swallowing gravel

[silentskream]

i think my goldfish is "chewing" on gravel.. she's sitting on the bottom of the tank making a laborious chewing motion with her mouth. she just moved into this tank and it has smaller gravel than she's had for the last year.. but for a couple years before that, she had gravel of this same size in her tank.

a year or so ago, another one of my goldfish got a rock stuck in her mouth, and i picked her up and poked it out (it was a smooth river rock)

but this goldfish is too big for me to pick up with one hand, and it's gravel instead of the smooth river rocks, and i'd be scared of hurting the fish.

soooo i dont know what to do. she acts like she's trying to grind it down.. but i dont know that it's possible... every minute or so i see some bubbles come outof her gills.

is there anything i can do? or just sit here and hope she gets it taken care of?

 

[Firebelly__girl]

My goldfish is constantly going through the gravel, but always spits it out, if you really think shes swallowing it, i can imagine it would cause some major problems so you need to switch it slowly over to tiny gravel that she can choke on, or something to big to even put in her mouth.

 

[silentskream]

AAAH!! SHE DID IT!!

i can't believe it!! she just got up and started swimming like normal and this crumbly sand came out of her gills! i had no idea their jaws (or whatever that silly organ is) were that strong!!

wow!

i'm in shock.

 

[jm1212]

AAAH!! SHE DID IT!!

i can't believe it!! she just got up and started swimming like normal and this crumbly sand came out of her gills! i had no idea their jaws (or whatever that silly organ is) were that strong!!

wow!

i'm in shock.

woa

 

[ostrangeone89]

can you say dumb fish enough?

That fish is lucky though, lol I didn't know they were that strong! My goldfish is always picking up my gravel but he always puts it back down!

 

[legendaryfrog]

AAAH!! SHE DID IT!!

i can't believe it!! she just got up and started swimming like normal and this crumbly sand came out of her gills! i had no idea their jaws (or whatever that silly organ is) were that strong!!

whoa......no way.......I dont its possible.....goldfish dont even have TEETH of any sort.

 

[J double R]

whoa......no way.......I dont its possible.....goldfish dont even have TEETH of any sort.

you don't need teeth, but if they have a crushing plate in the rear of their throat like some carnivorous fish do, it could be possible.

 

[silentskream]

I'm still just baffled.

i knew they had that crushing plate thingy, but I had no idea it was that strong.

i figured she'd just mouth the rocks a little while and spit it back out like they normally do (either that or choke, which i was really concerned with)

but to crunch it down into teeny crumbles!? i never would have guessed. my guess is that it just got stuck in her throat and it was easier to chew on it than to spit it back out.

and yes, goldfish are about as sharp as a bag of wet field mice, if you know what i mean!:drool: