fish ingesting gravel

Question
I have a healthy appearing Violet Goby (dragon fish). The only problem is that he is ingesting the gravel in our tank! I feed him shrimp pellets, but never see him eat them. The scariest part, I can see the blue coloration of the gravel rocks he has ingested in his stomach! What is going on?


Answer
Hi Crystal,
 I have never kept that particular species of fish but I can say that it is quite common for fish to ingest gravel.  It should eventually pass through the digestive system.  If it doesn't, then that will become a (very serious) problem, though I don't know of anything that you can do about it.

-- Ron
  rcoleman@cichlidresearch.com
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