Fish Eating Food And Then Spitting It Out?

[Aqua Andy]

Hi,

When feeding my Harlequin Rasbora and Flame Tetra Nutrafin Complete Tropical Flake Food and Hikari algae wafers (half a wafer crush and dissolved in a small amount of tank water then added to the tank) they take a bite and then immediately spit it out.

Is this because they don't like simply don't like it?

Or maybe that they aren't hungry enough to eat food which they don't really like?

I feed them Tetra Nutrafin Complete Tropical Flake Food, Hikari algae wafers and Interpet Freeze dried Blood Worm on alternate days with one day a week no food.

As always you feedback is appreciated,


Andy

 

[smooth_bourbon]

Do they always spit it out? Also do they spit out all the food or just chew and spit out some of it?

My Oscar is a poop and chews up his food letting half of it fall out of his gills, but I havent noticed any of my smaller fish doing this.

Have they always done this?

Anyways a million questions lol I would not worry about it unless they are getting thin. Next time try a different food, maybe you will find something they will like better

 

[Aqua Andy]

Do they always spit it out? Also do they spit out all the food or just chew and spit out some of it?

They seem too. I'll post my observations after feeding them again tonight.
They spit the food out straight after grabbing it and the piece of food seems the same size ( I crush the food up as they are only juveniles so the pieces are really small).

My Oscar is a poop and chews up his food letting half of it fall out of his gills, but I haven't noticed any of my smaller fish doing this.

They are definitely spitting it out of their mouths.

Have they always done this?

I've only had the Harlequins Rasbora a week. I fed them Freeze dried the Blood Worm the first night and they and the Flame Tetra went mad for it. I've since fed them the freeze dried blood worm again, flake and crushed up and dissolved algae wafers and have observed the behavior I've advised?

Anyways a million questions lol I would not worry about it unless they are getting thin. Next time try a different food, maybe you will find something they will like better

There so small it's difficult to tell if they're thin or not. They are however very active so hopefully thats a good sign.

Link to another post.

 

[debiasir]

alot of fish do this i think they are breaking up the food into manageble portions

 

[Aqua Andy]

alot of fish do this i think they are breaking up the food into manageble portions

If this is what I'm observing I'd be relieved but the pieces that they catch and then spit out are usually tiny.

 

[flips]

alot of fish do this i think they are breaking up the food into manageble portions

If this is what I'm observing I'd be relieved but the pieces that they catch and then spit out are usually tiny.

my ram almost always grabs a piece of flake food, spits it out and then eats some more, spits it out, etc. i think they're just taking what they can chew at once.

 

[jolaf]

My Red eye Tetrasx always spit it out. I think it becasue they need smaller more managelable pieces of food. I have also seen my green barb do the same.

I htink it is a normal trait for fish

Hi,

When feeding my Harlequin Rasbora and Flame Tetra Nutrafin Complete Tropical Flake Food and Hikari algae wafers (half a wafer crush and dissolved in a small amount of tank water then added to the tank) they take a bite and then immediately spit it out.

Is this because they don't like simply don't like it?

Or maybe that they aren't hungry enough to eat food which they don't really like?

I feed them Tetra Nutrafin Complete Tropical Flake Food, Hikari algae wafers and Interpet Freeze dried Blood Worm on alternate days with one day a week no food.

As always you feedback is appreciated,


Andy

 

[Aqua Andy]

I've just added some freeze dried Blood Worm to the tank and the Harlequin Rasbora and Flame Tetra all ate. I watched the Flame Tetra catch a whole Blood Worm biting off a piece and spitting it out repeatedly until he ate it all.

Maybe this is what they are doing with the other food's but the pieces are already tiny.


Andy

 

[ncstater1919]

yes my glowlite tetras do the same axact thing, i was worried until i realized that they were jsut spitting it up into smaller pieces so they could eat it. they could jsut be wanting a differant kind of food becuase they do not like the taste. i would break them up into smaller peices before putting it inot the tank so it wont create such a mess.

 

[guppler]

I think most fish that spit out their food and catch it again repeatedly are just breaking it down smaller. My gold fishes do it a lot. It's kind of fun to see Cracker catch a whole big cube of tubiflex worms and chew it for several minutes, shifting it in and out of his mouth while Pand Creamscicle swim around gathering the bits he drops. (I do usually put in more than 1 cube at a time or hold onto 1 at a time so they can't grab the whole thing, and the tubiflex are only an ocasional treat.) When they were litttle Creamscicle apparently couldn't stand to see cracker eating anything. I'd drop in 2 flakes and Creamscicle would grab the biggest, but when he saw Cracker going for what was leftover, He'd spit out what he was chewing just so he could grab the other flake befor cracker cold reach it. (cracker is common and creamscicle is a commet, so he grew fast at first and slowed down. Now Cracker is biggest, but he was the smaller of the 2 for about the first year or so.)

 

[jolaf]

That is funny. i have a litle balloon guppy he is orange. He does the same thing he is a piggy and wants to be there first every time. I call him happy. he is always happy to see me come to feed. stares at me the whole time. I also have a 3.5 inch blue gourami who I got a few weeks ago I actually was able to touch him while feeding he scotted but it was fun. I want to feed them up close this is a fun hobby isn't it?

I think most fish that spit out their food and catch it again repeatedly are just breaking it down smaller. My gold fishes do it a lot. It's kind of fun to see Cracker catch a whole big cube of tubiflex worms and chew it for several minutes, shifting it in and out of his mouth while Pand Creamscicle swim around gathering the bits he drops. (I do usually put in more than 1 cube at a time or hold onto 1 at a time so they can't grab the whole thing, and the tubiflex are only an ocasional treat.) When they were litttle Creamscicle apparently couldn't stand to see cracker eating anything. I'd drop in 2 flakes and Creamscicle would grab the biggest, but when he saw Cracker going for what was leftover, He'd spit out what he was chewing just so he could grab the other flake befor cracker cold reach it. (cracker is common and creamscicle is a commet, so he grew fast at first and slowed down. Now Cracker is biggest, but he was the smaller of the 2 for about the first year or so.)

 

[WILDER]

Fish do spit it out if the peice of food is to big, not the writer of this information below just to be sure.
Spitting- This is almost always from an advanced infestation of flukes. But you should do the following 2 things:

(1) Capture the fish, and do an oral exam looking for an ulcer, check the gills for swelling, paleness, white streaks around the edges of the gill or through the gill tissue, or any kind of foreign body (rock, pebble, etc.).

(2) Scrape the gill and examine under a microscope for flukes. ( best done by someone who knows what they are looking for)

More information is available on flukes at http/www.koivet.com