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My nephew recently got an interest in keeping fish so my sister bought him a little red zebra. Problem is with the gravel he has in his tank. I told him he should probably consider larger rocks but he didn't and now he told me he thinks that gravel is stuck in its mouth. He says it hasn't eaten for 2 days now. Apparently it shows interest in food but won't/can't eat it. I asked him if he could see gravel in its mouth and he said that he could. What should I tell him to do? If we weren't a couple of states apart I'd go take a look myself but it's out of the question until memorial day weekend and I'm afraid by then it will be too late.

it is probably to late now, but they can try bring the fish to the lfs and see if they can take it out, probably by holding the fish and useing teesiers to take it out, but it might not be possible.

are you sure it's not a female zebra holding eggs/fry? In case you're not very familiar with these types of cichlids, the red zebra is a mouthbrooder. this means she'll hold the fertilized eggs in her mouth until they hatch, and then she'll hold the fry until they are capable of fending for themselves. during this time she will eat very little or not at all.

I've read/heard/something, that if this happens, the fish has a piece of gravel caught in it's mouth, catch the fish, and gently, hold it upside down with it's top half in the water, squeezing the jaw bone gently (as if you were forcing a cat or dog to open it's mouth), to open the mouth, and sometimes this will help to pop the rock out it's mouth.

But, if it's holding fry this will force it to release the fry also, incase it goes and is stubborn and unwilling to release them instead of eating when it begins to starve to death

Best of luck, hope everything turns out all right, heidi michelle


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