Has This Ever Happened To You?
 

So I'm feeding my fish some Reef Frenzy and a couple of big pieces came out. I have a Carpenter Wrasse that thinks he's an Emperor Angel and tried to suck down one of the big pieces. Unfortunately the food is now stuck in his mouth and he can't swallow it. He has a piece of it hanging out of his mouth. I rigged a trap with a soda bottle to try to catch him to see if I can extract the food because he can't eat. I can't get a picture of him because he moves too fast.

My wife is upset because he is one of her favorite fish and she's afraid he's going to die. I'll do the best I can, but I'm not going to destroy my tank to get him out.

One thing I learned from this is that fish don't understand when you are trying to help them LOL!

Should resolve itself on its own. Happened to my clowns a few times. Sometimes it can be stuck there for a bit, but normally it will come loose some way or another.

I've had a few fish suck up some rather large chunks of food. They've all figured it out in the end.

Now I'm just curious to see if the trap will work or not

I don't think he would going into the trap if he cant eat

I have a clown that does that a few times a week. 5 years later I just crackup at um.... It's his pay back for biting all the time lol

Had this happen with my longnose hawkfish. I could see it was still able to breathe, but had to be difficult. It took a while for the fish to spit it out

Should be fine, happens with my sixline all the time

So anyway I put the trap in the tank and added some live brine shrimp. Less than 1 minute later he is in there. We pulled him out and put him in a bowl. My wife is a nurse, so as we hold him she gently pulls the food out of his mouth with a pair of tweezers. He actually was acting like he knew we were trying to help him. Afterward, the fish played dead in the bowl, so we put him back in the tank. He immediately went into hiding, then came out about 30 minutes later.

This morning when the lights came on he came out as usual. when feeding time came around, he ate with no problem.

Just think, when you think you've seen it all, it's just the beginning!

They are pigs. Mine will grab any size piece of food I put the tank then struggle to woof it down. I swear his belly is ready to burst sometimes.

I watch my firefish do that from time to time but has since learned to spit it back out if it's to big. The funny part is the swissguard basslet I have is the same size and no sooner does the firefish spit it out hell grab it right up and eat it.