Another newbie question: Bloat or full of eggs?

[Ali]

3 of 3 neon tetras and 2 of 5 green neons have really full, rounded bellies. Seems to be pretty new to the last week. Everyone in the tank is active, eating like champs, and my water parameters are all normal.

Still heven't figured out how to get photos to load, otherwise I'd attach some.

Any advice is greatly appreciated!

 

[Madness]

send them to me and I will post them. madness@comcast.net

How many times /day do you feed and how much do you feed?

 

[Madness]

Here they are

 

[Ali]

Thanks for doing that!

I feed 1-2 times a day depending on my work schedule. For a 37gal with 10 endlers, 8 neons, and a 2" clown pleco I picked up from the Co-Op on saturday I try not to over-feed. Maybe the corner off of a frozen cube of brine shrimp o a teeny pinch of flakes. At night I sometimes put a 1/6th leaf of romaine down in the gravel for the pleco, and take it out in the AM. There's also little bits of algae and a fair amount of java moss and other plants to nibble on. Most food is gone within 5 minutes or so, and the neons are fantastic eaters.

 

[Madness]

Sounds like your not over feeding, but the old saying, "feed what they will consume in 5 minutes" is way to much food. My fish can eat an entire can in 5 minutes, sure mine are considerably larger but the same applies. I feed and the food is gone within a few seconds.

It will not hurt them to go without for a couple days, my guess at this time is that they have eaten a lot.

 

[Betty]

I agree with madness: if they are still behaving normally, I'd let them go a day or two without food and see if the bloating improves. A teeny pinch of flakes shouldn't fill them up that much, but if it takes them 5 minutes to finish it, it's still probably too much.

 

[Ali]

5 minutes was a very rough guess, probably closer to 2-3. But you folks were right. I didn't feed anything from before I posted and the bellies were noticeably smaller. I think between the brine shrimp and the endler fry they were having an awesome time. They usually get most of the food before anyone else gets a chance at it anyways. I'd like to buy a 7-10 gallon for them to have on their own.

Some online research says green peas are good for constipation in fish. Just now fed 3 thawed frozen peas I smashed into paste. We'll see how they look in the morning.