Clown just died after eating

[carvainw]

My maroon clown has been doing great for months now and last night I was feeding him flake food and he was swimming around eating it and then started freaking out. He was lunging back and forth and then just died. What the heck happened. Its almost like he had some food stuck in his throat and choked. Any ideas??

 

[twoods71]

I have heard of fish getting food stuck but never with flake.
How old was the food?
Was your hands clean when feeding?
Any other fish in the tank that ate the same food? If so did they react funny?

 

[blutang]

Wow...thats really a strange situation.....if anybody can explain this I'd love to see a reason....thats really surprising, usually clowns can inhale their food with no problem.

 

[iechy]

It sounds like he choked on it. I guess it's possible. You need to teach your hermit crabs the heimlich

 

[broomer5]

I thought fish had gills and could not choke.
My guess is that there was something in the flake food, other than flake food, possibly a chemical used to either process the food, or some impurity left over from cleaning the equipment.
If this was even the cause of the fishes death.
What type of flake food is it ?
Not sure though - only guessing.

 

[iechy]

I didn' tmean choking in the same sense that we would choke since they have different physiology and, as you pointed out, gills. But as I'm not an expert on clown physiology I was postulating that it could have gotten stuck somewhere in his system clogging him up or otherwise causing problems. But obviously your theory could be right as well. Someone call Dr. Baden

 

[broomer5]

was just kiddin around Iechy
fish autopsy ?

 

[iechy]

Yeah don't you think that would be a good show. As long as they don't have that woman as the commentator. Her voice is creepy enough to scare those weird worms on my LR back into their holes.

 

[carvainw]

It was a bit older food but I have used it before with no problem and he usually just inhales it. It was Formula 2. I am still in shock after seeing that.

 

[blutang]

It sucks that it happened.....I have never really been a big fan of flake food...and this has really turned me away....again, sorry for your loss.