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My Flame Angel is "coughing" and refuses to eat.

He is interested in food, in feeding times he still come up to the surface and try to fond food, but when he looked at the food, he refuses to eat..no matter what it is...all the food I offered were their usual food and had been eating well before.

What I mean coughing is his strange action that I observed, he doesn't do it often but maybe I can see once to twice a day. It seems like he is irritated by something, he open his mouth and his head shakes at the same time. It looks like as if there's something in his mouth and he wants to spit it out. He does it for about 1 to 2 seconds.

I do not see any "scratching against objects" nor any white spots, signs of external parasites and open sores. He still swim around properly, not hiding or hanging on the surface or staying at the bottom. No rapid breathing has been observed either.

So all I see is the weird coughing act and not eating. Can anyone help me with this? Need help immediately. Thank you

Data
FOWLR plus a brittle star fish
SG - 1.022-23
temp - 26 degrees C
Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - 5-10ppm

Last edited by Week End at 20-Nov-2004 07:29

im wondering do you think that the fish could have something lodged in his or her throat? Good luck with it. steve

I've got a sunfish (FW) that does the same coughing type thing. I've watched him closely, and I noticed that he only does it when small bubbles (from pearling plants, filters, etc) stick to his head. He'll shake his head back and fourth quickly, open and close his mouth rapidly, and sometimes scrape his head along the side of a piece of slate. If your fish is doing this for the same reason, then you've got nothing to worry about, I would think. My fish will eat though... You might want to try feeding him some live foods, or something that he usually likes.

HTH

but that's the problem, the usual food that he likes he cannot eat anymore...in fact this coughing thing only happens when he tries to swallow something....

it's like we been drinking too fast and cought

....except the fish isn't eating fast and cannot eat at all...seems like something down his throat or internal organs got problems and keep refusing intakes of anything