Is My Fish Ill Or Just Fat? [+Hi Res Pics]

kabuku

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Hey there, glad to be on board!!
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I'm concerned about my poor OrangeFish (not had the tank long..
 
Concerned about fatness, and maybe a tiny bit of fin rot?
 
If a picture speaks 1000 words excuse me if I'm a bit verbose here
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How often do you feed the fish? Does the poo stick on for him/her for awhile?
 
You could try feeding them frozen peas.
 
Occasionally one or 2 of the fish have the poo stuck for a bit. You may notice this on the final pic.
 
I've only had the fish for a week or so.. the owners said to feed a little just at morning time which I was doing.. but over the last 2 days I'm feeding in evenings too (after noticing the instructions on the fish food. (Aquarian "100% complete Tropical fish food" apparently.)
 
I have some Sera "O nip" tablets with tidbits, but I've never used them as their diet is supposed to be catered for with the flakes and it's wasn't clear if it's safe to use both so idk about those.
 
The Aquarian flakes state not to put much food in and to remove anything that doesn't get eaten after 5 mins, but the fish still manage to find bits that fall in the gravel after the 5 mins.. otherwise the tank looks pretty clear of flakes after the time.
 
There are 14 other fish in the tank including another one of this species (of a slightly paler colour and slimmer build.) None are fat, maybe this one just has way more than his fill due to psychological issues ;-)
 
Phishcological? :facepalm:
 
If this 1 fish is eating too much and the rest are fine what do you recommend without starving the other fish?
 
Could this be a non food issue?
Could a pea diet effect the other fish?
What type of fish is this?
How many questions is too many?
 
Many thanks >>--:>
 
Welcome to the forums!  
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For your issue, more information is needed, I think.  What other fish are in the tank?  Can you post a few pics of those?  How much do you feed when you feed?  Is this fish dominating the food?
 
 
That's a very bloated gourami.  I'm moving this to the emergency forum, because this may not be a simple case of overfeeding if the other fish aren't displaying any bloating issues.  Frozen peas, with the outer membrane removed, would be the easiest thing to try, but it won't fix the issue overnight.  Personally, I'd feed the peas, then starve the tank for two days, and then feed the peas again and starve the tank for the rest of the week and see if there's a difference at the end of the seven days.
 
 
 
Don't feed the fish twice a day.  That's put on there by the food manufacturers, because they need to sell their product.  The truth is that the fish don't need to be fed even every day.  And when they are fed, less is generally better than more.  Most first time keepers drastically over estimate the amount of food they feed because it doesn't seem like much.  The reality is that the food on the market is packed ful of the necessary nutrients and calories, they don't need much.
 
Thanks for the welcome, and reassigning the post.
 
The pinch of food is small, the increase to twice a day was only very recently and for 2 days only. I'll stick to once from now on though following your recommendation, thanks for the info! They've only been fed once today.. I feed in the morning when the light goes on,
 
Nevertheless the problem was there before the twice a day food. As discussed, 14 /15 fish are doing very well.
 
Does he boss the food? Hm, not as such, he likes his food and eats well but not obviously OTT bossing around.. does gobble a bit though but I thought that was because he's bigger breed than the little fish so his species needed to eat more (as they have many times more body mass each as a species,) but he may be eating too much.. the tiny fish don't eat much at all in comparison, and the little red one hardly eats anything.. the catfish are serious munchers, but do really well healthwise.. in fact ostensibly it's a really healthy tank, this fish mingle often, most of them active at many different periods throughout the day, PH is good, they only get properly treated tap water, pre-mixed and at the correct temp etc.. no weird stuff added to the tank.
 
However there seems to be a tiny bit of silver at the back (tip) of his dorsal fin.. idk if this is natural (non-orange, slightly metallic)  colouration or early signs of fin rot? The other species don't have this.. I just don't have the experience to diagnose.
 
I'll post a vid link soon of the tank, with the other fish..
 
Thanks again,
Tris
 
[edited bossing food para @ 10:09pm]
 
Here's a vid from a around a week ago
 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5_aCj4JJi4
 
Unless you like catfish as much as I do you may like to skip the 1st 3 mins.. I really like that 3 mins though ;-)
 
Back to the point: Around the 3:20 mark you can see OrangeFish has quite a belly, even though they're only being fed sparingly once a day at this point.. (This vid was taken less than 24 hours after I received the tank.)
 
The yellow guys seem a little sedate, but the cheer up at different times a day.. 
 
The temp is a solid 25 degrees.. the heater is a popular hangout spot.
 
Species:
5 Catfish (+a big weird one that hides in the ship)
2 Rasboras
2 Gourami [thanks eaglesaquarium]
+6 others [2 Yellow, 1 Red 3 silver with blue eyes]
 
Please diagnose on the forum, not the youtube comments,
 
Many thanks.
Tris
 
If you can, I would isolate the fish.  It's just possible he might have dropsy, which is usually fatal, and although it's not wildly contagious you don't want to risk any infection in the other fish.  He might also just have SBD (swim bladder disease), which, although serious, isn't usually fatal.  The pea treatment sometimes works with this, too, or you could try Epsom Salts.  (There is some controversy about epsom salts, though.)  1 tsp. per gallon of tank water.  But as Epsom salts are rather hard on the fish in other aspects, you don't want to subject the tank mates to this.  If you can, I'd isolate him, give him plenty of warm, clean water, continue with the pea treatment, and we'll take it from there.
 
That sounds like great advice.. but I don't have a spare filter or heater unfortunately.. I'll have a think and see if anyone has a spare (I doubt it though.)
 
I'll try the pea treatment, but may have trouble keeping the catfish away from the pea.. eagles suggested starving the tank between pea treatments.. maybe this will help.. will pea's be good for the whole tank?  If you've seen the above vid, how many peas would I need if I'm starving the tank? Will the little guys be ok.. some of these tiny / timid fish seem to rely on bits of flake falling in the gravel.
 
Frozen peas were specified.. defrosted I guess.. not cooked?
 
Will wait for replies before tomorrows feeding.
 
Many thanks guys! Very kind.
 
 
-----EDIT-----
 
Just thought.. I have a little net for removing the fish.. maybe I can catch OrangeFish against the side of the tank in the little net with a (de-shelled) pea inside, whilst the other fish eat flakes for 5 mins? Also I can starve him on alt days by using the net.. if you guys think it would help?
 
The whole tank will be fine with the fast.  The other fish will also eat the peas, no worries.  From the video it looked like quite a few fish, possibly even overstocked.  I'd say about 6-8 frozen (thawed first) peas taken out of the outer casing.  Never feed CANNED peas!!!
 
Ok, sounds like a plan. I'll let you know how it goes. Do you think my pea in a net plan may stress the fish?
 
Would others agree that it's overstocked? The 3 silver with the blue eyes generally stick to the top layer and are happy up there.. others are happy lower down, especially 3 of the the catfish (one of witch is slooow.) As you can see from the vid, the other 2 of the 5 catfish are very playful and zip all over the place now and again.. but often the tank is easy going.. all the other fish are quite small and relax in leaves or go out for a slow wonder about the other half the time which seems to be in their nature.
 
I think you'd advise against getting another 2 fish.. the tank is 3ft.
 
Appreciate all of your advice.. I'll open up another thread about the catfish mating with the thermometer ;-)
 
Cheers all,
Tris
 
Most definitely stressful.  I wouldn't do it.  Just feed the whole tank the peas, no harm will come of it.
 
 
 
As for the overstocked comment, I didn't watch the entire video...  Precisely what fish are in the tank, and how many of each?
 
Ok thats good advice.. Peas it is :)

I'll let you know how he gets on.


Thanks
 
To my believe the only way is to euthanise it (sorry) It's dropsy (almost never contagious). Fish is bloated by liquid because of bacterial / viral damage to the organs (kidneys). Dropsy and finrot CAN be caused by worse waterconditions (few waterchanges, bad filtering, overstocking, aso). Be aware of that. Lot of goerami's (esp. Hybrids) are often infected with Iridovirus as well (with all sorts of symptoms). Aad
 
Ok thanks for your advice.. The water's well maintained, but there may have been stress from the transportation of the fish when I got them. I doubt the tank is overstocked to be honest.

I have 2 brands of fish antibiotics that were included with the tank, would you recommend using them. In the instructions there is some odd jargon regarding CO2 which I don't understand hough.

The fish is noticably more lethargic today. As I don't have a hospital tank I'm seriously considering euthanasing out of respect for the saftey of the other fish as well as to alliviate any suffering. Thanks again.
 
Pretty sure it's dropsy. The bloated appearance and if you look at the scales  in pic 3 + 4 , you can see the start of the 'pine cone effect' that marks the end I'm afraid.
 
I feel euthanizing the fish is the only answer. 
 

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