Oscar ate a marble, will he be ok?

Question
Hello!
I'm the proud keeper of a beautiful 5 year old Oscar, hes about 12 inches in
length . He lives in a 72 gallon tank with a large Pacu. I recently made the
mistake of dropping a big glass marble(about one inch large) into the tank.
Today I noticed that the marble is gone, and my Oscar has a detectable
"bump" about the shape of the marble in his mid side(only on the left side).
His scales do not seem disturbed He is not acting out of the ordinary, he ate
this evening and has been very active.
Is he going to be ok?
Is there anything I should do?
Will he eject it?

Answer
Hi Anthony,
  That is a very tough question.   The trouble is that it would be extremely difficult for it to move in either direction.  The teeth in the throat of the oscar (known as the pharyngeal jaw) all point backward to prevent stuff (little fish) from coming back out the mouth.  And the intestine is not really large enough to allow something like that to pass through.  The marble is glass so even the digestive enzymes in the oscar will not be able to break it down.  As I see it, here are your options:
1. leave it.  I don't know if this will be a problem or not.
2. Have a vet do surgery to remove it from the stomach
3. Try to force the marble back up through the mouth (this is going to be very difficult and potentially kill the oscar).  
I'm sorry that none of these options are very good.  

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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