Wide fish. Are there health complications or just too much fish food?

[TGOATW]

One of my cherry barbs are wider than the other. It looks normal from the side but pretty wide from the top.
Does it have some type of swimbladder problem i need to worry about or does it have eggs. Or just fat?

 

[rebe]

We need pictures or a video to tell

If it's swimbladder then a video would be especially helpful. The way people usually share videos on the forum is by uploading a clip to Youtube (either public or "unlisted" setting) and sharing the link here.

How is the fish behaving?

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Also, when females are full of eggs they are fatter as you noted. But that does not automatically mean this must be the case here.

As rebe asked about, one good clue would be how the fish is behaving. Swim bladder problems should be evident from erratic swimming and/or balance problems. As for being fat, this comes from over eating. This is usually only possible if we are over feeding. In that case, I would think it would be more than one fish getting fat.

There is one more possibility, constipation. Discovering this can be difficult. You have to not see the fish pooping which is not so easy to do. One way is to put it into a net type trap in the tank to isolate it. If it poops, you should see the poop in the trap. Most fish tend to poop pretty regularly, so it should not need to be in there for long. Another clue re advanced constipation is the fish will stop eating. So you can feed it some flake while in the trap. This will let you know if it is still eating but this will not necessarily mean it stopped pooping. Constipation takes a bit of time to get a fish to quit feeding.

 

[GaryE]

Cherry barbs are a species in which I have found females prone to egg binding. They get huge and look miserable.
I would deal with this by separating the sexes for a week or so. I didn't want fry, I wanted the females to drop those eggs. So after a week, I would recombine the sexes, and they would usually spawn. They and the other fish would have a feast with the eggs, and the females would be slim again, and would appear much more comfortable.
I no longer keep the species, and egg binding is a key reason why. It's subjective, but they always looked so uncomfortable when they really filled with eggs, and they seemed to fill with eggs a lot. You can get the same thing with some Danios.

 

[TGOATW]

Are these photoes okay? My phone is pretty old so their qualities arn't that good. It's swimming pretty well so i don't think it's a swimbladder problem. No sinking nor floating.

 

[Colin_T]

Need clear pictures but if the fish is red, and it appears to be red, then it's a male. female cherry barbs are brown.

Are the scales sticking out from the side of the body?
Is the fish eating normally?
What does its poop look like?

If the has stopped eating and its scales are sticking out from the body, it has an internal bacterial infection (dropsy) and is dying, and you should euthanise the fish.

 

[TGOATW]

Need clear pictures but if the fish is red, and it appears to be red, then it's a male. female cherry barbs are brown.

Are the scales sticking out from the side of the body?
Is the fish eating normally?
What does its poop look like?

If the has stopped eating and its scales are sticking out from the body, it has an internal bacterial infection (dropsy) and is dying, and you should euthanise the fish.

The other fish in my tank don't seem to have it, or is it non-infectious? The top of it's body is also a bit brownish but unsure.
and i cant see any scales poping out. I also cant see it's poop, haven't seen it.

and heres a video,it should be clearer and should be able to see it's swimming.

 

[GaryE]

It looks to me like a female who has too many eggs in need of release.

 

[TGOATW]

It looks to me like a female who has too many eggs in need of release.

is there a possibility that it has over eaten?

and what should i do? im not sure if i'm experienced enough to care for fry. I do have a big basin for me to keep them.

and why did they suddenly have eggs? i have had them for about 2 years and they never showed any signs of having eggs.

 

[GaryE]

If I'm right, and with pictures that's never certain, she has eggs because she's healthy and well cared for. She is now mature. By nature, she should have eggs. If you read back up to post #3, I wrote how I dealt with that. Some fish need a trigger to lay eggs - cherry barbs, zebra danios and glowlight tetras have been the worst in my experience.

A fish can be coaxed to lay eggs but the eggs can be left to be eaten. You have no obligation to raise the fry. She will probably lay eggs regularly through her life.

When a fish gets fat, it is not between the body and skin as it is with us. The fat accumulates inside the body cavity around the organs, and rather than expand, the fish usually just dies.

Some people will use epsom salt baths to get females to release eggs. I haven't used that trick myself and you would have to research how much to use, etc.

 

[Colin_T]

How quickly did it get fat?

Is the fish eating normally?
If yes, then that's a good sign.

Is the water milky cloudy in colour?
If yes, you need to test the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Then do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

 

[TGOATW]

How quickly did it get fat?

Is the fish eating normally?
If yes, then that's a good sign.

Is the water milky cloudy in colour?
If yes, you need to test the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. Then do a 75% water change and gravel clean the substrate every day for a week.
Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added to the tank.

What sort of filter is on the tank?
How often and how do you clean the filter?

I'm not sure, it looks normal on the side and rarely view from the top.

It is eating normally

not cloudy at all

it's a waterfall filter, i rarely clean the the filter cause i'm afraid the substrate isn't enough to house the bacteria. I only clean it if it looks clogged due to the algae and poop.

 

[TGOATW]

If I'm right, and with pictures that's never certain, she has eggs because she's healthy and well cared for. She is now mature. By nature, she should have eggs. If you read back up to post #3, I wrote how I dealt with that. Some fish need a trigger to lay eggs - cherry barbs, zebra danios and glowlight tetras have been the worst in my experience.

A fish can be coaxed to lay eggs but the eggs can be left to be eaten. You have no obligation to raise the fry. She will probably lay eggs regularly through her life.

When a fish gets fat, it is not between the body and skin as it is with us. The fat accumulates inside the body cavity around the organs, and rather than expand, the fish usually just dies.

Some people will use epsom salt baths to get females to release eggs. I haven't used that trick myself and you would have to research how much to use, etc.

that is reassuring, I'll try to research more into that then, i'm just worried it'll get egg bound and dies because of it.

 

[GaryE]

It's something you should deal with, but it shouldn't be difficult.