Praecox Rainbows - Sick Or Gender Confusion?

[wcohen]

Hello Everyone,

I'm not new to the aquarium hobby, but relatively new to Rainbows.

I've had 12 Praecox Rainbows ("Neon blue dwarf for 8 months now - since they were so little you couldn't tell the females from the males. Looks like I have 6 of each. Over this time they've grown to about 1.5 inches in length and have become quite beautiful.

Up until now, I have assumed that the larger, more colorful fish were the males - their bodies also being (for lack of a better term) "taller." On a few occasions I have seen the larger (assumed male) fish chasing the smaller fish. When the chasing occurs the lenghwise stripe, normally faint, is much bolder. Now here's the deal...

Over the last month or so, several of the males have developed fatter tummies. They show absolutely no signs of being sick - they eat and swimming about just as energetically as ever. The scales are not "pine coning." If I didn't know better, I'd swear they were carrying eggs. Questions:

Are they sick?
Do I have the males confused with the females?
or
Are they merely beginning to resemble their cartaker by developing beer bellies?

They are fed a small amount of food (never any leftover food) 2 - 3 times per day. I could pull the numbers from last week's water sample, but trust me - everything is normal. They are in 20 gallon tank with a couple Siamese Algae Eaters (about 3" each). The tank gets a 15 - 20% water change about every five days.

Thanks folks. Looking forward to your correspondense.

Wayne

 

[helterskelter]

Your correct in thinking what the males have the more colour and are larger fish that the females.

It's strange that they are getting fat, as the females even when their ready to breed dont put on much weight, it could be over feeding, but if u feed live foods you may of introduced an internal paricate to them.

However this is difficualt dignose and not commen in the aquaria.

Hopefully it's just theirgot a little extra food and just put some weight on.


What i used to do to breed these fish was just ass some java moss and afer 5 days remove it to a hatching tank, and quite oftem i would get 30-50 fry every 2-3 weeks from 5 fish.

and i've also even raised them in with the parents.

Helter

 

[vix]

Praecox Rainbows are quite easily sexed by their finnage. The males have bright red fins whilst the females have yellow fins. HTH.

 

[dave_m13]

Hi

I have to say that I have had a similar issue with my Praecox Rainbows, I either thought that the male had turned to female or was sick. I kept monitoring him, it was eating food as usual swimming no problem then after 5-6 weeks, it died. This happended a month ago.

Now I know I do not overfeed the fish, only once in the evening and just enough to feed all the fish but I do know that they eat any food that is added to the tankand quite quickly. They also have very small throats (From what I have been reading)

My water parameters were fine before and after it died.

So to be honest I am not sure what actually happended, none of the others have been affected, hopefully they will not be either.

So it could be a possibility that your fish maybe sick but I could not tell you for certain, this is just my experience.

Thanks
Dave

 

[wcohen]

Thanks for the replies folks. I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Wayne