So I have seen this twice now... I didn't even know it was possible for fish to throw up. This morning I saw my little sparkling pygmy gourami throw up flake debris... the tetras immediately went nuts over it. I hadn't fed them since the afternoon before, and I hadn't just done a water change or anything to stress her. She acts totally fine and is still interested in food. I am just worried because she doesn't get that much in the first place and she's always been thin. I hope she hasn't been doing this for a while and I haven't seen How thin are these fish supposed to be?

I've seen fish shoot food back out after sucking it in, but never heard of them actually throwing up before.

Was she spooked by anything?

I don't think so, she was in the middle of the tank. I don't think she is stressed by the tetras because they leave her alone. If she is bothered by their presence, she'll whip out her 'feelers' and they leave.

Most fish bring the food out again, its usually because the pieces are too big to chew and they eat them again or they dont like whats in the food.

Dry food has this effect on a lot of fish, so try a gel food or live and see if she takes it more readily.

Well the food had already been digesting for more than 12 hours...

I've never tried gel food before with any of my fish. Will it work for very tiny mouths? Hers is smaller than the black neon tetras' mouths.

Is it possible that she's eating something else? Plants? Even poop?--I ask this because my goldfish sometimes will gobble up a poop in the hope that it's food, then spit it out when they realize that it's not. I wouldn't expect such a small fish to still have food in the upper portion of its digestive system after that long.

Gel food would probably be fine. My gourami is quite willing to take bites out of large food (soaked algae wafers, pellets, etc.), just as long as it's soft enough.

Good luck!

Maybe she is nibbling anubias or some beard algae. Both are not very tasty to fish, and the algae is dying off. However, what came up was the red flake color. And I'm thinking the anubias leaves are too thick for her to get her little mouth around. Maybe the algae or poop.

food doesnt sit in the system like it does with us mammals. theres no stomach to digest anything and the food goes straight through. maybe she is picking something up that isnt really digestable.

Just to throw this out there, I thought that spitting food back out was also a possible sign of internal parasites?

That is true...but she isn't just spitting it out. It has been in her system for a while and looks pre-chewed and digested. I don't know what's going on!

ohhhhh, that is weird, Kissy! I hope you figure it out you have such pretty tropical fish!

I thought it only took them about 3-5 hours to digest? If it was 12 hours later, and you hadn't fed her before that, it was most likely something else. Maybe rotten food from the bottom of the tank?

Mmm..maybe. My tetras keep it pretty clean though. There might be leftover algae wafer from the ottos, but that's not red. I'll do a waterchange tomorrow.

Right now I am feeding Omega One tropical flakes, and occasionally HBH soft pellets and FD bloodworms/daphnia.