Is My Pristella Tetra Fat Or Pregnant?

[MylesVinno]

Hi everyone,
 
I have 3 pristella tetras in my tank and one of them is very large. I have had it for 4 weeks and it was like that when I bought it. Does anyone know if it is pregnant, fat or just bloated? 
 
 Here are some pictures:
 
http/i328.photobucket.com/albums/l334/MylesVinno/IMG_0767_zpsnysnqsz0.jpg 
http/i328.photobucket.com/albums/l334/MylesVinno/IMG_0770_zpsjbcn48aj.jpg 
 
Any help would be greatly appreciated 

 

[Akasha72]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
 
I've had a look at your photo's and I suspect it's possibly a mix of all three. If it is a female it could be full of eggs, females also tend to be more 'rounded' than males, they also, from my observations of my own tetra's, tend to be greedier. 
 
For now (as you've only had them a short time) I would just monitor, feed lightly and wait to see what happens. If she's full of eggs she should release them at some point and then decrease a little in size. 
 
I have emperor tetra's and I can tell when the females are full of eggs just by looking at their tummy's - they also brighten in colour a little when they are ready to release them

 

[MylesVinno]

Hi and welcome to the forum.
 
I've had a look at your photo's and I suspect it's possibly a mix of all three. If it is a female it could be full of eggs, females also tend to be more 'rounded' than males, they also, from my observations of my own tetra's, tend to be greedier. 
 
For now (as you've only had them a short time) I would just monitor, feed lightly and wait to see what happens. If she's full of eggs she should release them at some point and then decrease a little in size. 
 
I have emperor tetra's and I can tell when the females are full of eggs just by looking at their tummy's - they also brighten in colour a little when they are ready to release them

Ok thanks, I will feed he/she some peas tomorrow in case he/she is bloated, I will let you know how it goes.

 

[Akasha72]

peas will help if this is constipation. You could also try dipping their food in epsom salt - to do this you'll need epsom salt (magnesium sulphate) which you can buy cheaply from most pharmacies, a seperate vessel (a jug or similar) and plain tap water. Mix a tablespoon of epsom salt in about half a litre of water, mix it well until the salt has dissolved. Then add some fish food to your net and dip it a few times in the epsom salt water to get it coated. Then you can just feed the food to the fish.
 
Never add epsom salt to the tank as it will mess up your tank parameters - the pH especially. 
 
You could keep going with this for up to 5 days. It works well for excess bacteria in the gut and/or constipation