My 6 inch peacock bass (my prized fish) has died. Cause of death: two pebbles stuck in her intestine. She was fine a week ago when I added my 4" pair of firemouths to the 125gal. But two days ago I noticed her having problems swimming and laying on the bottom. I was almost certain then that she had eaten something but all fish were accounted for. That night my friend and I knocked her out with 15 drops of clove oil in one gallon of water (quite amazing stuff) and did a physical exam (did I actually think I could pull something out of its stomach...). We definately felt something in the stomach. The pbass recovered just fine from the clove oil and spent the night and most of the next day on the bottom of the tank until it started floating upside down at the surface and I decided to humanely ends its misery. The moment I cut open the abdominal cavity I saw the rocks 
I am devistated and I wanted to warn everyone with large fish kept on gravel that this is a real possibility. My peacock bass obviously made an attempt to catch one of the firemouths, missed and got a mouthfull of rocks instead. I'm taking all my gravel out and switching to sand now. So be careful using gravel with fish large enough to eat it, especially if they are kept with smaller fish they might think they can fit in their mouth. Has this ever happened to any other pbass keepers?
I am devistated and I wanted to warn everyone with large fish kept on gravel that this is a real possibility. My peacock bass obviously made an attempt to catch one of the firemouths, missed and got a mouthfull of rocks instead. I'm taking all my gravel out and switching to sand now. So be careful using gravel with fish large enough to eat it, especially if they are kept with smaller fish they might think they can fit in their mouth. Has this ever happened to any other pbass keepers?
