Can Fish Choke on Food and Die?

[Julles]

Just wondering, 'cause yesterday, a large, beautiful red-cap oranda was floating dead in my pond.  I had just fed the fish, and I admit that I did not do a head count, but I didn't notice anyone missing, and sure did not notice a dead fish.

15 minutes later when I finished with some chores in the turtle pond, there in the main pond was the oranda, freshly dead.  I'm not absolutely sure it died in the last 15 minutes, but it sure looked healthy and well with red gills and clear eyes and all that.  Not a mark on it.  No disturbance to the pond, no water was added, NOTHING!

I can't think of any other reason for it to have died ... Could it have choked on a piece of food?

[Esther]

You could have given him the Heimlic maneuver.

I don't know. That was a bad joke, huh?

[perplexed ponder]

  Esther!!

Never heard of a fish choking before. I suppose it's possible.

[bunny56lbc]

You could have given him the Heimlic maneuver.

I don't know. That was a bad joke, huh?

 

Actually my cousin Mike gave one of his koi mouth to mouth when he discovered that the fish had jumped out of it's tank . He was able to save the fish too.... ...we now call him "fish lips"...
I told him , if one of my goldies or koi ever make a leap out of their ponds he can come over & do the same for them..... ....   

bonnie

[Sunbeam56]

Fish can choke, but you would have noticed it. They only choke when the food totally clogs their mouth, and they can't get water around the obstruction - so they suffocate. They can't breathe if water doesn't enter their mouth and pass over their gills.

Other than that, most fish can carry an overlarge piece of food for several days to "soften" it before finally gagging it down.

Something else killed your goldie. Did you look at the food carefully? Sometimes mold on the food has really bad results....

[KatFish]

Sorry to hear that.  Is this the same fish that was acting funny?

[marla]

sorry about your fish, but I would tend to not beleive it choked, for some of the reasons givin by Sunbeam56.  Did you check the gills on the fish after it died?  if it had been acting strange, or even if it had been being a loner, and not schooling this can be a sign of illness