Can an aro get a sore throat?

[henward]

Ok, The other day, as my post previously, my arowana (RTG)seemed to have eaten a clown loach.Usually pretty chilled, no aggression to anything, but i know they can be opportunistic and maybe the clown loach got too adventurous towards its mouth or something or injured perhaps and slower than usual.

I had 18, and upon relocating them, i only caught 17.

I woke up and it had something in its mouth, as if tring to swallow a big piece of shrimp, got home, fat belly, seems content.

I know clown loaches have a spine on the eye.

It seemed to have swallowed it fine.

On that evening, it also ate FD SHRIMP - whcih means it can swallow.

I gave it a day of fasting to ensure it digested loach properly.

But, is it a possibility that its throat was wounded during the swallowing process?

My reasons for asking is this.

I feed my bichirs a frozen ball of minced beef heart (works well, i sugges tyou try it) i do this so the other mid swimming fish wont eat the beef heart, bichirs and TT EEL bit into it, and rip little pieces off that has thawed..

Anyways, my aros primary diet is peeled shrimp, Then i feed it FD Krill for arowanas and Locusts whcih i breed. Occasionally, it will eat bits of the mince beef heart that falls off from the ball of meat i feed the bottom dwellers.

Today, It will eat the FD Krill, It will eat the tiny chunks of beef.... But it refused the shrimp, it seemed to struggle to push it down the throat - probably cos its not as smelly and tasty as beef and FD SHRIMP, it spat it out. I put a pinch of FD Shrimp, it ate it no problems, I saw it eat pieces of BH. But not shrimp.

So i tried locust - usually locust it willd evour with in seconds..... swallows it wtih no issues AT ALL.

today, it bit it, and tried to swallow it and struggled.

Didnt spit it out, cos it loves locusts, but.... its struggling to swallow - Eventually it probably will as it forces it down its throat...

But, is it possible that this aro has a sore throat and cannot easily swallow large food right now?

I mean, positive here is that it is eating - and it follows my hand and is hungry...

But i am worried, its my most prized fish!!!

Has anyone experienced this. Also, im sure it would but can anyone tell me if this will heal? Common sense says it does, but i guess i need some opinions.

I will let it not eat too much for the next couple days and let its throat heal.

Anything else i can do?

[smidey]

the clowns throw out their spines when they are captured, i have had a spike in the finger & not pleasant at all.

i would have thought the RTG would have had a good spiking from the clown on the way down so expect there is some damage but the fact that it is eating must be a good thing. i would continue to feed what its eating so it keeps up it's strength. i guess the only way you will know for sure is by examining it's throat, good luck with that

maybe there are meds suitable?

[henward]

it swallowed the locust ok.

and its very interested in my finger and the FD Shrimp.

I will just ensure it has energy i guess.

maybe still full, the clown loach must been sizeable.