Can a fish die from overeating

eohippus

AC Members
Feb 8, 2008
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Brought live baby brine shrimp (they look more like sea monkeys than shrimp) home from the fish store on Tuesday afternoon. I had to spend an extra dollar so that I could use my credit card for a purchase and this is what the clerk suggested. I looked at the bag of "shrimp" and thought it looked like too much food for my 6 tiny fish, but he said that it really wasn't and that the fish would eat what they want and then I could just suction out the rest.

My 2 zebra danios went crazy for them. They stuffed themselves to the point that their bellies were bulging ridiculously. This morning it was dead with its stomach still bulging and red splotches all over the stomach area.

Can a fish eat too much food and die from overeating?
 
When you put the brine shrimp (sea monkey kits actually are brine shrimp) in the tank, did you just dump in the water they came in? Or did you net them out and add them that way?
 
The guy in the store told me to pour the bag right into a fish net and then just put the netted shrimp into the tank, so that's what I did.
 
Yep. Fish can die from overeating. Not just because of stuffing themselves, because leftover food in the tank will rot and the water quality will decline.
 
Water is still good 0-0-5. I sucked the remaining shrimp out of the tank the next morning. Everybody else is still alive.
 
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