Eats Rocks

Bob Moy · Post by **Bob Moy** » 22 Jul 2003, 05:06

My shovel nose seeems to be eating rocks. His stomach is hugely distended and you can see the indentations of the gravel.

Any ideas on what I should do?

Post by **Silurus** » 22 Jul 2003, 07:09

It might be ingesting the gravel incidentally along with the food. Gravel will be passed right out without harm to the fish.

Sid Guppy · Post by **Sid Guppy** » 22 Jul 2003, 14:58

My Axolotl did have the same problem; it lived on that course gravel made from baked clay (the kind that looks a bit like tiny light brown lavesplit); that particular kind of gravel is hard to get out of the intestines.

She -a female one- got real sick and almost died. After a fast that lasted about 9 weeks or so, she finally got all the gravel out of her (the usual way

).
Now she's on fine riversand with an occasional small gravel in it, it's all rounded by water erosion, so that won't block the gut.
What made a difference too, is I started to feed bigger prey, so she didn't have to scoop up bloodworms and stuff from the bottom (Axolotls use -like Shovelnoses and a truckload of other critters- "suction" to swallow prey), now she tackles live guppies and whole earthworms, that also diminishes the risk.

What kind of gravel are we talking about?