Constipated, Greedy Platys...help!

[ihassomefishes]

hey guys,
i had 6 platys for about a week or so...they were happy and healthy, i added two more yesterday, and now all but two (one old, one new) of them are bloated and constipated.
they've been eating all of the food i've been feeding my corys (shrimp pellets and sinking wafers) plus their food.
i feed them two different flake foods, algae crisps for livebearers and regular tropical flakes.

suggestions? i read about the pea thing, i fed them a few hours ago so i didn't know if i should try that now or wait.

thanks

 

[VaegaVic]

How do you know they're constipated?

If they're bloated that's fine, they could just be full.
Wait a day or 2 and you'll know, if they return to normal sizes, everythings fine, if not, it could be constipation.
As long as they don't look like a pine-cone (which could mean Dropsy) you should be fine.

 

[Katty]

Maybe try feeding the corydoras after lights out? Then only the corydoras should be able to find the food, and the platys won't be overeating by taking the cory's share. It might help things a little.

 

[ihassomefishes]

a few of them look fairly uncomfortable, they're swimming much slower than normal and settling much lower in the tank. i've been keeping an eye on them, and it seems like constipation to me..but, i could be wrong.
i'll wait a couple of days and see what happens, should i feed them veggies instead of flakes to be safe?

i fed the corys in the dark just now, but i didn't get it past a couple of my platys. they have some sort of crazy fish laser vision. i'm worried the corys aren't getting enough to eat...i haven't seen them show much interest in the wafers/pellets lately even when they do get a chance to get to them.

 

[ihassomefishes]

i was right, thankfully...i dropped a couple of squished peas in the tank before i went to sleep late last night, and they're all back to their normal non-giant selves.