# Food comming out of gills



## madamsuz (Dec 20, 2008)

hey guys i was wondering if any other reason there are for food coming out of there gills besides over eating... 

the last three days i have fed one of my oscars soon as he eats the live worm it comes out of his gills....

but its definetly not over feeding... as i thought it was over eating the first day she done it so i didnt feed again till next night, and the same happend and then again today....


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## lohachata (Jan 27, 2006)

feed your oscar some goldfish...you will see scales coming out of it's gills..it kinda normal.


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## Eraserhead (Feb 1, 2007)

madamsuz said:


> hey guys i was wondering if any other reason there are for food coming out of there gills besides over eating...
> 
> the last three days i have fed one of my oscars soon as he eats the live worm it comes out of his gills....
> 
> but its definetly not over feeding... as i thought it was over eating the first day she done it so i didnt feed again till next night, and the same happend and then again today....


That's just what big cichlids, especially Oscars, do with their food. They're sloppy creatures. I have a tank full of giant CA cichlids, and they all do that. Sometimes they will even do it with one single pellet! It's what happens when they crush the pellets with their second set of jaws. If you feed them live food like was mentioned above, they will blow little goldfish scales out of their gills (it actually looks really cool). Shrimp, bloodworms, ect usually don't do that.


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## Sea-Agg2009 (Aug 2, 2008)

90% of fish do this. It's basically the same thing as crumbs on your face. This is the main reason over-feeding is bad. Fish will eat whenever food is present, because they have to in the wild. When they eat, the crumbs that come through their gills hardly ever get eaten, so they sink to the bottom and form algae, or ammonia.


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## madamsuz (Dec 20, 2008)

lohachata said:


> feed your oscar some goldfish...you will see scales coming out of it's gills..it kinda normal.


wow that is interesting as, an makes sence we got a load of feeder bards and majority were gone in a night 

so thanks.. makes alot of sence!!


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