The largest and oldest goldfish I have in my tank is about 3-4 inches long and I think tonight he swallowed down a piece of gravel. He's always sucking on them and then spitting them back out in search of more food, the gravel are pretty standard little pebbles, maybe 1/4 of an inch or smaller.

Anyway, now he is either hanging out at the top or bottom of the tank and being very lethargic (but can still get around easy enough it appears if he wants to) which is unusual for him. He is breathing very rapidly as though he is choking. I keep looking in his mouth to see if I can see the gravel, but I think he actually swallowed it all the way.

I read online that the gravel could pass through his system, but may do some damage. Is that really true? I really hate to see something bad happen to my oldest goldfish so I'm wondering if there is anything I can do (besides obviously changing the gravel)? Can it really pass through their system OK? I can't see him pooping out a pebble and the way he's acting it looks like he is still trying to spit it out. I'm hoping for the best, but I'm afraid to check on him in the morning...

its possible he did swallow a bit of gravel but his syptoms are more comman of thoughs of bad water conditions. do you have any tet kits for ammonia nitrates ect? and wut have you donr to the tank inthe last two weeks? water changes, new fish , ect.

Yeah I have ammonia, nitrites and PH tests and they all check out. No new fish at all and I did a water change about 2 weeks ago. All the other fish are acting normally and since I've had this fish since I was a beginner he is one tough cookie. I'm still hoping it's gravel that'll pass through him, but I'm nervous right now.

how big is your tank? do you have a filter? and how many fish are in it?

He JUST spit it out. Thank goodness, I was worried. He was struggling with it for hours. I'm def. still going out and getting new gravel tomorrow.

It might also help to up your waterchanges to weekly - it's healthier for them

Try to get a smaller gravel... I kept changing my gravel to larger sizes but my fish grew so fast that eventually they were able to fit the pieces in their mouths and very often got stuck. Now I use a small grade gravel 1-2mm in diameter and my fish love to look for food in that gravel

I am completely against using gravel of any kind in a goldfish system! This is exactly why.

I would either use coarse sand or large pebbles that they can't pick up. I have the latter in my tank and have for years.

river rocks work well too. my tank is pretty much a bare bottom with a smattering of japanese river rocks. fish can't swallow it and he seems to enjoy nudging the rocks around whilst searching for food.

I had exactly the same experience, I thought my fish was finding it hard to breath so I moved him into another empty tank, a few minutes later he was fine and a little stone was on the bottom of the tank. So he was definitly choking.....I've now gone for smaller gravel!!

A couple of my fish sucked up a piece of gravel while I was feeding them sinking pellets. I had to pick them up with a net to help them spit it out, some pellets came out too, although I did let it sit in a cap full of the aquarium water for a couple of minutes before feeding them. Now I'm looking for river rocks/pebbles of the same color as my gravel. I was concern with Chocolate Chip cause he was breathing a bit rapidly at the time.

What are Jap rocks?