Are My Flame Tetra's Fat, Ill Or Maybe Pregganant :s

[trikidy]

Basically they all seem to have slight 'bellys' or bulge on the underside of them. Some bigger fish have bigger bulges and some fish seem to have no bulge. Is this normal? Are they fat? Could it be something wrong with them? I thought they were all male but could they all be pregnant ?

Thanks for any help, pics below

http/www.flickr.com/photos/trikidy/5621598551/in/photostream
^ The fish looking straight on, see the roundness?

http/www.flickr.com/photos/trikidy/5621604607/in/photostream
^ Fish on the left, from side, bulge beneath

http/www.flickr.com/photos/trikidy/5622197534/in/photostream
^Bulge

http/www.flickr.com/photos/trikidy/5621610445/in/photostream
^ Closer pic of bulge on a fish

 

[Noahs ark6]

Might be constipation...or if they are all like this u prob feed them too mcuh, how much do u feed them?

 

[trikidy]

I feed my tank a pinch of tetra crisps once every 2 days, i'm sure i don't over feed

 

[Noahs ark6]

I feed my tank a pinch of tetra crisps once every 2 days, i'm sure i don't over feed

your not overfeeding then. im not sure then, sorry

 

[trikidy]

Tested my water and the ammonia was 4 ppm!

What the hell!

Why is this? I cycled it an everything

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I don't know why it would be that high, but I do know that you need to do a large water change ASAP! 80% would be a good number... I'd also test the tap, just in case.

 

[trikidy]

Just done a 60% water change

Hmm Pets at home sell ammonia remover, i might buy that, any experience of using it?

I cycled it before i found this site, going by what my LFS told me. Was using nutrafin cycle and they said it was cycled. Maybe cause i dont use it anymore it has uncycled?

 

[Monty-2010]

Did you test it again after the water change?

I never use chemicals to remove ammonia, just water changes which is much better than adding chemicals.

did you do a fishless cycle? and how did you test the water? sometime lfs's can be a bit misleading...

 

[trikidy]

No i will test it again now to see.
They told me to have it running and adding in nutrafin cycle for maybe a week, then they sold me 3 guppies and then a week later 3 more.

Then after another two weeks added some corrys, week later they said i could add 10 flame. 2 weeks after 10 neons and week and half after added my betta.

Just test it now.

 

[trikidy]

The ammonia result now is about..2ppm

~Reduced it lots but its still too much

 

[trikidy]

Could it be dropsy?

 

[Monty-2010]

They've given you some duff instructions, there is some guidance on this site for fishless cycling, but given you've got fish in you'll need to do a fish in cycle. it sounds like your tank isn't ready to cope with the waste from the fish.

Can you do another water change to get the amonia down? because those levels can still be lethal.

 

[trikidy]

I'm going to feed them peas and hope its constipation.
Bought some ammonia remover, will test it again in 3 hours.

I'll give the ammonia remover time to work. Test it again in 3 hours, if its still high ill do a 30-40% change again. Thanks btw,

 

[karin]

Don't get too wiggy yet. Yes get this ammonia issue under control. Female flame tetras have an odd body shape, very deep and with kind of sharp angles. I can't tell from your photos, but they might just be normal.

See http/diszhal.info/english/characins/en_Hyphessobrycon_flammeus.php

 

[trikidy]

Thanks touch wood everything is okay.

Going to test ammonia again see how it is

Thanks guys