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When cories eat, is it normal for the food to come back out of their gills?

I read something about some one with a few cories and he fed them black worms, and when the cories ate them, the worms came out of their gills. The cories still kept trying to eat them.

Is this at all normal?

Yup. The food comes out their gill openings when they are trying to eat too much too fast and not all the food can go down their throat.

Thank-you for responding.
I had a feeling it was normal, but I figured better safe then sorry.

Jen

Isn't this how they act as "detrivores"? They go after detrius, but just expell it through the gills breaking it up instead of actually eating leaving more surface area for bacteria to break it down?

No. A detritivore is something that will actually eat detritus (the fine organic mulm on the substrate). Detritivores are non-selective feeders. They will ingest detritus and digest what can be digested.