Choking, Dying goldfish....

I decided to give my goldfishes some food I had from a previous fish and the 3 of them went at it, two of them are too small to fit it in their mouths. The third one was big enough however, but it got STUCK!!!! It kept trying to spit it out and couldn't. I thought it would dissolve quick enough and be alright. But 10 mins later and it was still fighting with it and I could see it lodged in its throat when it would open it's mouth. It's my favorite out of the three so I began trying to think of routes I could get the food out of its mouth. Then the fish started floating on it's side struggling harder to get it out of its mouth! Whenever I tried to cup it in my hand it would swim down to the bottom but as soon as it stopped swimming hard would float back up. So I grabbed my net and scooped it up to the top of the water. Reached in and gently held it in my hand and faced its mouth towards the surface of the water and lightly shook it back and forth while it struggled to get the piece out of it's mouth and.... POP out the piece of food came I let go of the fish and grabbed the piece of floating food before the fish could grab it and attempt eating it again.

Needless to say that fish food is gone and won't be fed again. Strickly flakes ONLY! My other goldfish I had quite a while ago ate pellets (seem to keep everything cleaner) just fine for years. Never had a problem like that and it started out as a 1" feeder and got to be about 4". I had it for 10 years. Who knows how old it was when I got it. She lived FOREVER lol. She ended up laying thousands of eggs about 2 weeks before she died. Made me sad, because I knew what was coming. But I was glad to have her all those years. First fish I ever had. So I kind of have a soft spot for goldfish. But I do have more tropicals now. But always gotta have goldfish too.

Sorry for the bad news.

What brand pellet was it?

I had a goldie do that but with a ... tadpole. Definately only give them food that wont get stuck.

Wow that's crazy. Sounds like an intense moment. And not that it's funny but I can just picture shaking a goldfish back and forth trying to dis lodge a piece of food.

Alexmuw- It was an older walmart brand food. I figured I'd just slowly feed it to them so use it up.

lars on- I didn't expect it to get stuck, apparently his mouth is alot bigger than his throat lol

Wolf-Keeper1- It wasn't funny at the time but now when I look back it is. I can only image how I looked all in a panic over a goldfish and how I looked when the food came out and I was successful at getting it out! lol