Bloated? Botia Kubotai/angelicus Botia

[Ckutz_fistTimer]

Hi,

I'm really worried, i just came back from dinner and playing pool and checked on my fish and noticed my kubotai have huge stomaches...i just got them last week, so maybe this is normal, maybe they are just pigs, but my water conditions are not very good so i'm worried.

Basically i just restarted my tank last week. I have an otto, dwarf gourami and two angelicus botia. it's a 10 gal tank. I now realized this is probably too small for my botia to be perfectly happy, but the thing at petsmart said 10 gal was ok. also, i knew when i got them that they want excellent water, but i decided to take a risk. see i'm at college, don't have a car, and don't get to get to the pet store very often. Also i've only been there a few times when they had angelicus botia in so i took advantage of it. I made an attempt at fishless cycling prior to getting them, but i don't think i created enough ammonia to build up very much bacteria..

Anyways, the botia have been excellent. at first they were going crazy when i got them going up and down the sides but they have calmed down now, and they are a lot of fun. they are definately used to the tank now and getting pretty comfortable. i originally had a molly also but it came with ick (what a wonderful surprise) and i put it in a seperate tank and began treating both tanks with Quick cure because i noticed a spot or two on both of my botia. I'm on day three i believe of the treatment, the molly died in the other tank (it had it really bad). So far all the fish have been fine except the molly and the few spots i saw on the botia. the botia's ick has cleaered up however, but now the gourami has a few spots. i'm going to do a small water change and treat the tank again.

Anyways, prior to leaving, i gave the gourami just a few flakes (he ate them all), and i dropped in a shrimp pellet and two Hikari sinking wafers. I realize this is a bit much, it's cause i literally gave the gourami about two or three big flakes, and new he would munch on the pellets, and if he does, the angelicus botia get scared away. So i was planning on removing w/e food was left when i got back. i came back, and noticed both of the botia look like they are pregnant, they have little balloon bellys...i don't see any of the ffood left at the moment, did they just eat it all and get fat? or could there be something wrong with them? one botia is doing a little "thrashing"/scratching every now and then, but i had thought that was probably on account of any left over ick on him.

oh and earlier when i checked the ammonia it was at about 1 ppm. i'm a poor college student (fish keeping costs a fortune by the way) and can't afford all those expensive test kits, so i haven't checked the nitrites and w/e else the 5 in 1 thing does. i was planning on waiting till when the ammonia starts to go down.
And also the botia seem perfectly happy..in fact they are out looking for more to stuff in their stomachs.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Lokemer]

Try and put peas in there not frozen. and petsmart sells fish with bad recomended sizes. so peas deffinetly if theyre bloated because it could be constapation .

 

[WILDER]

What filter are you running in the tank, as it best to over filter when the tanks overstocked.
I would preform a water change.
Do a search on the fish diets needs, as to many dried foods can lead to constipation and swim bladder.
Also soak the pellets before you let the fish have them.
Don't feed for aday and just try peas.
Introduce some frozen foods like daphnia which is good as it helps fish digest there food, and some green veg.

How long has the tank been cycling for.

 

[Ckutz_fistTimer]

Its no special filter..i think it's from walmart, it's for a 10-20 gallon tank, i forget the specifics, and i'm not there right now to find the info. it creates a pretty good flow though. I had the tank set up before and it seemed to work fine. it's a HOB (hanging on back) filter.

I just changed the water today, their stomaches look a little smaller, but they still thrash occasionally.

I have had no luck with veggies, with these fish, or the fish i previously had. I don't know what i'm doing wrong. I know my otto should love some, but i put in some zuccini (it had been steamed) for a day but no one touched it. i'm going to try peas next time i can get some. but what preparation is required?
Also i have frozen....stuff..it's like blended cube containing a large variety of things. I have tried just chipping some off with a knife and putting it in the tank, the gourami eats it but the botia didn't pay any attention.

tank has been cycling with these fish for a week. before that i had it set up for a week and put in a little bit of flake food (the botia also disregard the flake food). I read that it will start the cycling process. It didn't do very much because the tank is definately cycling now.

 

[WILDER]

All you can do is water changes and increase aeration till tanks cycled.

Cook frozen peas for a few minutes, let cool down and pop out of shell, mush between fingers into small pieces and add to the tank.

 

[Ckutz_fistTimer]

how often do you suggest I should do wc during cycling? currently doing them about every three days...if the water starts looking especially cloudy, and yesterday when the ammonia was around 1 ppm. I saw somewhere else that ammonia usually spikes higher than that before it starts to go down, but I don't know how the botia would handle higher levels...i'm such a jerk for getting them I should have waited till it was cycled...ugh why'd they have to look so cute..

 

[WILDER]

You are meant to do a water change very day or even more.
Do you know anyone who could donate a mature filter sponge.

 

[Ckutz_fistTimer]

wow every day? I thought that would really slow down the cycle? I don't know how i missed that detail. I'm using a gravel vac currently to change the water, is that good or shouldn't i vac the gravel on account of bacteria growing there?

I just saw something about that media donation in someone else's post, that's an awesome idea. Unfortunately here at school i don't know anyone else with a tank. I'm in the US near philly and didn't see anybody on that list in that location (very few people even in the us, what's up with that?). And there's only one actual pet shop around here but i rarely get out that way, all the others are PetSmart chains, and i doubt anyone there has enough sense to understand why i would want filter media from them.

 

[WILDER]

When I first started fish keeping I was told not to touch the gravel or filter to the tank had cycled.
You can buy bio spira but not sure if you can use it with fish in the tank, will go and check for you.

 

[WILDER]

You can use bio spira with fish in the tank.
I would try getting some to cycle your tank.

 

[Ckutz_fistTimer]

hmm..never heard of that..i've read about that stuff that people use and it's supposed to contain bacteria but it comes right off the shelf and everyone says it doesn't work (i believe i saw you comment on this in another post). Is this the stuff that is refrigerated and does work?

Man i can't believe i've been reading all this crap about cycling and there's a product i can just stick in there and skip the whole process.

I tried to find Bio Spira, but the stores near me don't carry it specifically. I think these products are supposed to be the same thing, but i'm not sure. what do you think?

http/www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?...77&keepsr=1

http/www.petco.com/product/11426/Kordon-...at=OnSiteSearch

 

[WILDER]

Its bacteria in a bottle and you keep it in the fridge.
It's meant to be good.
Do a thread about it in tropical discussion, plenty of members have probably used it.

 

[WILDER]

http/www.petfish.net/kb/entry/448/

 

[TigerIssey]

Wilder, there are two threads at the moment on bio-spira, one in new to the hobby (I have put alot of info on there) and one in Tropical discussion. Maybe worth you reading them.

Tina

 

[WILDER]

Thanks tigerIssey.
Didn't know tetra had took over marineland and change the products.
Thanks for the info.