Pregnant Tetra? Or Just Fat

[Kairi]

Ms Piggy has always been the largest fish in the tank (apart from the pleco) but since I've moved her into her new tank, she's gotten really fat. I don't have a picture of her, the batteries in my camera are dead, but her sides are bulging almost like she swalled a small marble or something. She doesn't seem cranky anymore though, and enjoys having a lot of tetras to swim around with... could she be pregnant? Or is she just hogging most of the food?


Ok, here's a pictures. It's not the best, but you can see her belly.

 

[ajbettle]

we really need a picture! .... dunno wait for some1 hu nows to pop in

 

[WILDER]

It hard to say, can she maintain her balance in the water, over feeding can cause swim bladder problems, what do you feed the fish, has she layed eggs before.

 

[Kairi]

nope, she's never laid eggs before... well, not that i know of anyways. she swims fine and plays hide and seek along with all the other fish. i feed them omega one natural protein formula for all tropical fish. i actually didn't notice her being tubby, my husband (who says he's not real interested in the fish but watches them constantly) noticed and wanted me to ask. The only "abnormal" part of her behavior is that she's not being mean and picking on other fish anymore. ((I don't know if you remember, but she's the one I wanted to feed to my cat))

 

[WILDER]

Need to improve diet in frozen foods and veg, to many flakes will cause swim bladder problems, try some shelled peas and daphnia, don't feed them flakes for a few days, let them have a clear out.
Cook frozen peas in boiling water for a few minutes, let cool down, pop out of shell, mush between fingers and add to the tank.

 

[Kairi]

just plain ol' frozen peas? will the danios and mollies eat them too?

 

[WILDER]

Yes plain old frozen peas, all the fish will benefit from the peas it good for them helps them keep going to the toilet.

 

[Kairi]

once a day? how many peas do you think? none of my fish are very big... the largest is about an inch long (not counting the pleco). how long do i give them peas?

 

[The-Wolf]

looks like a perfectly healthy female to me.

 

[WILDER]

Just mush two peas between fingers, and give them some tommorrow as well, just once aday.
Buy some frozen foods got to get them on a better diet.
Daphnia very good for digesting the fish food, bloodworms, brimestrimp, micro worms etc.

 

[Kairi]

except she's fat. the rest are very trim and she looks like she ate a small balloon. here's her :

and here's one of my other buenos aires tetras:

you can tell the second one doesn't have a belly bulge

Wilder: I have blood worms. I didn't think about using that as food for them... it was orginally a treat for the betta.

 

[WILDER]

The other tetra is fine, just need to get them on a balanced diet, plus they must get bored off flakes everyday, i would. lol.

 

[Kairi]

you're prolly right although there's 3 different types of food they get in a given week. I get bored just feeding them the same thing daily

so peas for two days, and mix up their flake food w/ bloodworms and other frozen food. i can do that

 

[WILDER]

Yes, i feed mine frozen foods every day but mix them up so they have a different one, plus a veg, good luck.

 

[Kairi]

cool thanks!