I cut defrosted shrimps into small pieces and fed them, which they greedily gobbled up. I was feeding Fattie when I saw Love opening and closing his mouth, then straining his neck upwards in a look of torment. His neck was stretched out of shape, it actually looked thicker than the head! And he kept gasping for air. I panicked and took him out of the water, thinking he needed some oxygen. He went slack and his head and limbs hung down. My roommate and I kept talking to him, we even tried tilting him head-down in the hope that he would vomit out his food, then the other way round to help his swallowing. Nothing worked. He still looked lifeless and limp.
After some frantic googling (which yielded almost zero results), we decided to forego the "gasping for air"theory and put him back in his water as water helps in his swallowing. The strangest thing happened, Roundie came to him and started nudging him with his nose, in a gentle manner that was really surprising to see, as if telling Love he would be okay. (Fattie on the other hand was more interested in the remaining food left in the tank)
It took Love a good 10minutes of vomitting motions to finally get rid of his first piece of stuck food. I also realized why Roundie kept hovering around his "friend", he gobbled up the vomitus immediately
After another 5minutes of that gagging motion, Love finally got rid of the largest piece of food, which he immediately ate back. In 2 minutes Love was swimming around fighting for food with the other two.
My roommate and I were so relieved we almost cried...
[steve's edit -- poll question deleted]
