Goldfish can choke on a variety of things, including the gravel in their tanks. You need to make sure their tank has large gravel that they cannot fit in their mouth to choke on.
When creating your tank, it is crucial that you make sure everything in it would be too large for your goldfish to put in their mouth. This can help you to avoid your goldfish from choking to death on something small, such as gravel.
What Can Goldfish Choke On?
There are a variety of substances that may be small enough for your new little addition to choke on.
For example, if the gravel is small enough to fit in its mouth, it may nibble on it and end up ingesting it while eating its fish food.
When that gravel goes past its esophagus, it can get stuck and end up blocking its intestine.
This will result in your goldfish’s death, as it will not be able to eat food any more due to the blockage.
Other things your goldfish can choke on include the following:
- Some foods,
- Goldfish pellets,
- Green peas,
- Other substrates.
How to Tell if Your Goldfish is Choking?
Now that you know what to watch for when giving your fish their new home, how can you tell if your goldfish is choking?
Humans usually hold their hands around their necks, mouths, or even tell you that they are choking. But how do fish tell you?
When your goldfish is choking, you will see their mouth open very wide and start to look like they are gagging.
They flare their gills and move backward a little with their pectoral fins.
Then they will spit out whatever they swallowed, and all will be well again.
However, this is not always the scenario that plays out.
Sometimes you might need to get tweezers to pull out the stuck object, while other times, your goldfish might die.
Although, if you do not give your fish food or objects that are too big for them to swallow but big enough for their mouths, you can most likely avoid the choking situation altogether.
They usually spit out things that are too big for their mouths, such as rocks and large-sized foods.
However, there may be some instances where the object is small enough for their mouths but too big for them to completely swallow, which will result in their choking to death.
Make sure you keep an eye on your new goldfish and only give them things that are not too big to fit in their mouths or small enough not to choke on.
What Human Foods Can Goldfish Eat Without Choking?
Even though goldfish can choke on green peas, it is good food for them to eat if prepared properly.
You should feed green peas to them because of the following:
- They sink when you place them underwater. This can be good for sensitive fish, so they do not have to search for where the food is up top or suck in any air bubbles.
- They are rich in fiber. Fish need fiber to prevent constipation, so eating a lot of green peas will help them stay regular.
If you feed your goldfish other dry and freeze-dried foods, but no fresh veggies, it is likely to get constipated due to the lack of fiber.
This will end up, resulting in blockage in its digestive tract.
This can not only feel uncomfortable for your poor fishy, but it can also cause it to have trouble swimming, affect its equilibrium, and also make it swim upside down.
So, when feeding your goldfish three times a day, you need to make sure you add in some fresh veggies, such as green peas.
Waste buildup in humans is very uncomfortable and may cause vomiting, while with goldfish, it can seriously harm them and cause a lot of issues for them.
Goldfish tend to be voracious eaters, and they poop out a lot of waste because of this.
Most goldfish owners believe green peas help with food blockage and trapped air by pushing it out of their digestive tract.
Without the use of green peas or other fresh veggies, your fish will not get enough fiber in its diet.
This can cause the waste to get stuck in the fish, which in turn can put pressure on their swim bladder.
This pressure affects how the goldfish swims.
By preventing the swim bladder from deflating and inflating like it is supposed to be doing, your fish will end up swimming erratically, and that can be risky in the end, not to mention constant discomfort.
How to Feed Green Peas to Your Goldfish without It Choking?
Since fresh peas are a great way to combat constipation, due to its high fiber content, it is important to learn how to feed them.
You do not want to feed them too much, or else your goldfish will not be able to absorb some important nutrients.
The following steps will show you how to feed your goldfish their green peas.
1. How Many Peas to Feed Goldfish?
If you are going to feed your goldfish peas, you may be wondering how many peas should you fee it?
Well, if you are trying to prevent constipation, you need to feed it fresh green peas only one a week.
This will help keep the fiber up in its body, along with giving it a well-rounded diet.
However, if you are trying to treat constipation, you need to feed it only 2-3 peas daily for three days.
Younger goldfish need half of that amount for treating their constipation.
Even then, if your fish is still constipated, try feeding it green peas for two more days.
If five days total have passed and it is still backed up, it may not be a lack of fiber in its diet causing the issues.
Other issues may include the following:
- Poor water quality,
- Permanent swim bladder damage,
- Internal parasites,
- Bacterial infection.
Once you are done feeding it the green peas, and it goes back to producing waste normally along with swimming correctly and other behaviors going back to normal, you have cured its constipation.
This means that you can go back to its regular fish diet. But be careful to avoid constipation in the future.
2. What Peas Should You Buy?
There are many varieties of green peas out there for you to feed your fish.
They all come with various nutritional values for your little one.
Some of these types include the following:
- Garden peas,
- Snap peas,
- Frozen peas,
- Snow peas,
- Canned peas,
- Split peas.
You can buy any of these varieties of peas for your goldfish; it will not be picky.
However, do not buy it peas that have been seasoned, because it can make your goldfish sick and cause it more harm than good.
3. Making The Peas Edible for Goldfish
So now that you have peas for your goldfish, how do you make them so that your goldfish can eat them without issues?
First of all, remove them from their pea pod if they have one.
Then, you need to clean the peas with warm water.
You can either microwave them to cook them or cook the peas on the stovetop.
Either option will work for your fish just fine; however, you need to make sure that the peas are soft but not mushy.
You will also have to remove that thick skin that surrounds the green peas because your goldfish can choke on it.
You can do this by either tearing off the skin or squeezing it to pop the peas out.
Next, you will need to cut the peas into halves.
Once this is done, you can give them to your goldfish for consumption; however, you can also make the peas even smaller by slicing them in half again.
This is especially important for younger goldfish so that they can eat the peas.
Doing this will ensure that your goldfish will be able to eat their peas, prevent constipation, and not choke on anything in their tank.
