je_suis_ketan Posted November 1, 2009 Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 Help, my male fighter looks like he is a female swollen with eggs, he's got a big belly just behind the gills. He lazes around the bottom of the tank and occasionally shoots up to the surface for some air. Does anyone know what might be going on? He's definately a he, as he is a crown tail with really long fins. We've had him for about 6 months now. Water conditions have been good and we haven't introduced any new fish for about 6 weeks. any help would be appreciated. cheers, ketan Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phoenix44 Posted November 1, 2009 Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 like a pine cone? its dropsy Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bronze-dragon Posted November 1, 2009 Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 How old is he? What are you feeding them? Have you seen any poo lately (might be constipated) ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
je_suis_ketan Posted November 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 Just did a google search. It could be Dropsy, but the scales aren't sticking out too much. I am going to try raising the tank temperature and see how he is in the moring. would you recommend anything I could get from the shops for him? One site said epsom salts. thanks for the reply. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
je_suis_ketan Posted November 1, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 How old is he? What are you feeding them? Have you seen any poo lately (might be constipated) ? Actually we havne't seen him poo in general. Though one of our platy's seems to be pooing constantly! He's about 6-7 months old. He is eating, fed him some blood worms tonight. Most of the time he gets flakes. Would feeding him some pea's help constipation? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nymox Posted November 1, 2009 Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 Even a very Hapu female wont lazy round the bottom of the tank unless somethings up, mines about as Hapu as they come and shes active as. Try giving him a lil shelled pea, they love it and it helps them poo, if it doesnt help him then it might be something more serious then constipation. EDIT: Also, on a female you get the omnipositor too so without that and looking Hapu even with a female id be a lil worried. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mickey_1975 Posted November 1, 2009 Report Share Posted November 1, 2009 Hi, I have had two angels with a similar problem. Huge tummy and not eating. I know its not dropsy as I have seen that before. Sadly they both died from it. I cut one open to see if I could see what it was inside. There was a lot of white fatty tissue in and around the stomach cavity. Still none the wiser about it all. M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Scottie841 Posted November 2, 2009 Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 Would feeding him some pea's help constipation? I would not hurt to try. We have had a few that have been the same and have been dead within a couple of days. Keep an eye on the scales to see if they start to stick out Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink_fish Posted November 2, 2009 Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 Yes, feeding him peas will help if it is constipation. It sounds like he might be getting a little too much rich food, and/or maybe too much food. Here's what has worked for me best in the past – don't feed him anything at all for two days (you may have to separate him if he's in with other fish), then on day three cook and shell a pea, squash it up so it's soft and offer it to him. Feed him a pea everyday until he is, ahem, unconstipated. To prevent this happening again, avoid over feeding – especially with rich foods like bloodworms (keep them as a once a week treat), and offer peas once or twice a week (any other fish will enjoy these too). Keep us posted on how he does. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
je_suis_ketan Posted November 2, 2009 Author Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 Thanks for all the help guys. I feed the him some pea's this morning and he went for them. He's been lazing around for a wee bit now that I think of it, but just last night I noticed that his belly was pretty big! Raised the water temp last night and will try putting in some Epsom salts tonight. The fish only get blood worms once a week and are only fed once a day with flakes. I may try giving them peas more often, usually I just get them straight out of the freezer, chop them up and put them in, do you have to cook them? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pink_fish Posted November 2, 2009 Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 Yep – peas should be cooked (then cooled) and shelled before feeding. A few seconds in the microwave will cook a small batch – basically I think the idea is that you want them soft; straight from the freezer they would be quite hard and tough, and they can't eat the shells easily, so remove those. I find that my fighters will have trouble with big chunks of pea, so I usually mush them up a bit. The other thing is that you may not be aware of is that some fighters do like to spend quite a bit of time lying around – I have ones that like to sit in plants and on the substrate – sideways sometimes!, so it is possible that this is part of what's going on with him too. If he's eating the peas and otherwise looking and behaving normally (except for his big belly) I wouldn't bother about adding epsom salts (in my experience they don't help much anyway). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Caryl Posted November 2, 2009 Report Share Posted November 2, 2009 I just put a few peas aside when cooking tea, rather than cook some especially Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BikBok Posted November 3, 2009 Report Share Posted November 3, 2009 my fighter tends to be a bit of a pig and he's in with platy . So once a week i don't feed them in the morning as I usually do (so they have to go hungry) and they get a bit of pea each that night and nothing else. Seems to clear out their system. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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