Can fish choke to death?

[ranger979]

On the last dive I made I saw a dead northern that had the tail of another fish sticking out of it's mouth. My first thought was that it must have choked to death on the fish. After think about it for a while this seems unlikely. I don't know much about fish anatomy but I don't believe they have 'airway' to that could get blocked. I'm assuming the gills transfer the oxygen directly into the blood stream.

If decided that it was more likely that the fish probably starved to death. What do others think? Can someone enlighten me on how a fishes gills work?

 

[Ed Marshall]

I'm not an expert, but I think a fish could "choke" if its mouth/throat was blocked. Ordinarily, water enters through the mouth and passes through gill slits on the way out. If no water could enter the mouth, the fish would theoretically asphyxiate. Here's a very brief explanation of gill structure:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gills

Ed

 

[DA Aquamaster]

I had an Oscar about 8 inches long about 20 years ago that ate a very large crayfish (about 6 inches long from tail to claws). When I got home and observed him finishing his tank mate an inch or so of the tail was sticking out. It remained that way the rest of the evening but he had managed to swallow the whole thing by the next morning. I suspect if he could have suffocated or choked on that he would have.

With the Northern I would suspect some internal damage occurred from the other fish.

 

[pants!]

Fish don't have a small pipe to their breathing organs the way people do. Something would need to physically block the entire mouth cavity before there was any danger of "choking," and if it did happen it would probably be a pretty drawn-out process because diffusion will still be occurring, albeit more slowly, at the gills. I too would suspect internal damage from the other fish, mortal wounds from the fight it had apparently 'won,' or some previous condition or disease.

 

[CDFDiveMaster]

Interesting, however, I'm no help, I'll keep looking into it just for curiosity sake.

 

[ranger979]

Fish don't have a small pipe to their breathing organs the way people do. Something would need to physically block the entire mouth cavity before there was any danger of "choking," and if it did happen it would probably be a pretty drawn-out process because diffusion will still be occurring, albeit more slowly, at the gills. I too would suspect internal damage from the other fish, mortal wounds from the fight it had apparently 'won,' or some previous condition or disease.

The mouth did seem to be completely blocked. The fish it attempted to swallow appeared to be almost the size. However, you're probably right about internal damage being a more likely cause.