Fish Choked On Pellet, And Now Has A Lump In It's Chest?

[Doomchibi]

Earlier I fed my two fish, a leopard ctenopoma and rainbow shark and usually I put in a (round) shrimp pellet or two because my rainbow shark will nibble on them a little, but today my ctenopoma decided it was going to try to eat one of them. (She is only about 1") I didn't notice she did at first and I had walked away, and when I came back she was on the gravel with her mouth open wider than i've ever seen it and her gills looked weirdly pink, and she seemed very uncomfortable. At first I thought maybe she was yawning, which I had heard these do sometimes.. But then I put some bloodworms in, and she completely ignored them which she has never done before- She didn't even move. I thought something had to be wrong with the water and so I rapidly tested everything and it was all fine.. Which took about 5 minutes total. I went back to her and watched her for a minute or two more, where she was still in the same place, and then suddenly she spit out one of the shrimp pellets which had swelled up a good amount.. I thought, Oh! She was having trouble swallowing that, surely she'll be okay now- No, of course she tries to eat it again and immediately sucked it back in and went back to lying on the gravel with her mouth open for few more minutes. Somehow she swallowed it but now she has this scary looking bump in her chest, which I can clearly tell must be the pellet, and she looks miserable. Her mouth also seems to be open a bit, though I have heard it is common for their jaws to lock up after eating something big? I will definitely be more careful with the pellets for now on but will she be OK, and is there anything I should do? Her gills are still weirdly pinkish, and they were not like that before she ate. 
 
Is there something I should do in the future if I think my fish starts choking? 
 
Edit.. I just checked on her again, and her stomach has gotten bigger. It's nearly twice as big as it usually looks and she's breathing a little hard. I am certain this is not an infection or anything like that, this all happened as soon as she tried to eat that pellet. 

 

[fluttermoth]

I'm really sorry to hear about your fish.

The trouble with fish is that they're quite delicate, so if you try and physically remove the pellet, you're likely to injure the fish and make the problem even worse.

If you really feel she's not going to make it without intervention, you'll have to have a go; wrap her in a soaking wet towel (an extra pair of hands to hold her still would really help) while you use your little finger to try and move it, but that has to be your very last resort.

 

[Doomchibi]

She doesn't seem to be choking on it right now, i'm pretty sure she actually swallowed it (or at least got it mostly down), my main concern is if that could have hurt her? I'm hoping she couldn't have torn anything by forcing something far too big down. I can't see anything looking in her mouth at all, so I guess it's staying in there. I'm just hoping for the best case scenario, where she somehow will be able to digest that whole thing. I don't think there's anything else I can do at this point. 

 

[fluttermoth]

If it's got down her throat it should break up.

Do let us know how she goes on, I'll be keeping my fingers crossed for you both.

 

[Ch4rlie]

Wow, thats unusual, fingers crossed she will come out of this completely unharmed and all the wiser for it, she won't do that again in a hurry!
 
You will obviously know that maybe next time, just break the pellets up, just in case.
 
Do let us know how things turn out in the next day or two.

 

[Doomchibi]

She's looking much better now, I went to check on her earlier and she swam up to the glass and gave me her usual guilty puppy eyes. Her mouth looks like it's still open a bit and maybe like she irritated one side of it, but the bump is almost completely gone and she's swimming and breathing normally. That was definitely a big scare for such a little fish, I will be breaking the pellets up for now on! Unfortunately, she's eyeing my gravel now which is around the same size as the pellets, so i'm thinking a change is due in the near future. Better safe than fishless. Thank you both for your concern and replies.

 

[fluttermoth]

Glad to hear she's doing better, great news

Do get the gravel changed ASAP if you're worried about it; a piece of stuck gravel will be far more serious.

 

[Doomchibi]

Would it be better to go too big to eat or too small to cause blockages if it gets swallowed? I have plants too and i'm not sure if they would be able to handle bigger rocks or anything like that. Is there any "suggested" substrate that I haven't heard of, like small and fine gravel? Sorry for all the questions, and thanks for responding to all of them. 

 

[fluttermoth]

Don't worry about asking lots of questions, it's what we're here for

I'd be tempted to go for sand; there's no worries about it getting eaten and stuck and fish (unlike reptiles) won't eat it and cause blockages, they just sift it out through their gills.

Very small gravel could also be an option. Going smaller is better than going larger; large rocks will get food and pooh stuck between them and be harder to clean and, as your fish grows, they might still be able to find pieces small enough for them to pick up.