Pregnant or just fat???

[SarahBravo]

One of my black widow tetras is looking susiciously plump....

compared to her skinny friends....

Am I gonna be a granny, or should I cut down on the flakes??

Only ever had pregnant live bearers before, kinda at a loss with egglayers!

Sarah

 

[dragoon459]

shes definitly gonna have "children"

 

[WILDER]

Look down from the top of the tank if her tummy is bulging from the side's it could be a desease like dropsy.

 

[dragoon459]

forgot about that
but fish with dropsy usually are so fat to the point that your surprised its still alive

 

[Lateral Line]

No reason to assume disease, besides, dropsy is characterised by scales sticking out, pine cone effect.

Female egglayers tend to be deeper in the body and noticeably wider when viewed from above or from the front as you picture them. Interesting pictures actually.

 

[Wolfdog]

Hey! thats exactly how one of my black skirts looks like!

I have six in a 10gal with nothing else.

If indeed she is going to have eggs.. what should i do?

I have a 29gal cycling, and another 10gal with guppies so nowhere really to put anything.

Will they eat all the eggs? should i... scoop up the eggs and put them in a breeder net? just leave em'?

Ill go try and search some more

Wolf

 

[Lateral Line]

Most egglaying fish are very fond of their own caviar. It is not unusual for tetras etc., to scatter a few eggs every few days, these rarely survive, and if an egg does lodge where the fish can't reach it, the fry will be eaten as soon as they appear.

If you seriously want to breed egglayers, you need to have a seperate breeding setup. You will also want to keep and condition males and females seperately so the female can fill with a decent number of eggs.

Egglayer fry are much smaller then typical livebearer fry, take a great deal more care, and time to raise, but many species are not that difficult.