My 8” Queen Coris Wrasse swallowed a rubber band !!

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Hi all,

I have a beautiful 8” Queen Coris wrasse who is an aggressive eater and tears into algae sheets that I wrap around small pvc pipe sections via several rubber bands.
Well today she was a little too aggressive going after the Nori and knocked one of the rubber bands loose, then chased it and swallowed it. I watched him for almost an hour trying to spit it out but all I could see was the tip of the red rubber band when she would open her mouth with the rest or the 2” circle of rubber band deep inside her throat. After an hour the lights went out and she buried herself under the sand as she normally does every time when the lights go out.
My question is how worried should I be about this? Will she be able to survive the night with a rubber band down her throat? Will she be able to spit it out eventually? Could it be that it is stuck somewhere in her mouth and that’s why she can’t spit it out? Is intervention required or should I just let her handle it? What if she swallows it completely? Would her digestive system be able to handle it and eventually eject it the other end? What is my best course of action at this time? This happened at 6pm tonight and it is now a little past midnight. I’m nervous about what I’ll find tmrw. Hope she’ll be ok. Worried. . I have attached a picture of her (lower right) next to my juvenile emperor.

0AE6AE8F-4403-400C-BBFF-F0AAD8331172.png
 

KrisReef

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Ok that’s funny watching a fish poop a rubber band
The OP's question made me wonder so I asked the all-knowing Googlie and quickly found that other folk have information on rubberband ingestion by fish. Seeing it all working out gave me some hope that this would pass.

OP, let us know how this turns out for your wrasse.
 
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This morning the Coris Wrasse was swimming around perfectly, eating well and I couldn’t see the tip of the rubber band in his mouth as I could yesterday. This morning I did find a rubber band on the sand bed that looked elongated (instead of circular like few others that are on the sand bed) and a bit more chewed up in appearance, so I’m assuming that she managed to either spit it out or pass it. Hopefully that’s the case. I’ll keep you guys posted if she starts showing any negative signs indicating that the rubber band is still inside her tummy.
Thanks a bunch.
 

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This morning the Coris Wrasse was swimming around perfectly, eating well and I couldn’t see the tip of the rubber band in his mouth as I could yesterday. This morning I did find a rubber band on the sand bed that looked elongated (instead of circular like few others that are on the sand bed) and a bit more chewed up in appearance, so I’m assuming that she managed to either spit it out or pass it. Hopefully that’s the case. I’ll keep you guys posted if she starts showing any negative signs indicating that the rubber band is still inside her tummy.
Thanks a bunch.
Glad it all worked out for now!

Thanks for the update- good to know the fish is doing ok.
 

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