Pregnant Dojo Loach Or Sickness?

[Maddy]

Okay so unfortunately I don't have any water test results for my tank yet, I will get them ASAP but for now I'm wondering if anyone has any idea as to what might be going on with my female golden dojo.

Her name is Noodle and I've had her for about... 5 or 6 months? And more recently I bought a friend for her, a male named Linguini. They both live in a 10 gallon tank (ugh, small, I know... I do daily water changes and I am saving for a larger one. Unfortunately I knew nothing about fish when I first got Noodle so I figured since she looked small that she would have more than enough room in a 10). Noodle has been very strong so far even after nearly killing off every fish in my tank by not running the Nitrogen Cycle, she survived. This is my first tank and I'm doing this all on my own so needless to say I've made quite a few mistakes along the way.

Anyways, I am a little concerned with Noodle since she appears to be either pregnant or sick. Pregnancy seems like a far stretch though because Linguini still appears to be too tiny and mating conditions are far from acceptable. But I figured I'd rather make sure, I'm kind of hoping it's that and not sickness.
Since a few days ago I've noticed:
- White little orbs inside of her belly- almost 100% sure they are not on the outside.
- She's been quite active tonight, swimming to the surface and around the filter a lot and looking a little more spastic as usual- but she often has these moments randomly so if it weren't for the white things in her stomach I'd think it was normal
- She's looking pretty fat but I'm not sure if that's just because of her growth spurt that she's seem to undergone recently
- Also this might be unrelated but I've noticed more bubbles floating around in the water and on the surface, but that's probably because I just changed the filter pad or something.

I'm also a little worried about Linguini.... he seems to be a little pale and sickly skinny next to Noodle. He moves around MUCH less than she does and I sometimes think he's dead when I peek into the tank because he'll be draped in a plant at a slight angle. I've been monitoring him closely and making sure he's getting enough to eat and although Noodle seems to snatch up most of the food, Linguini does get a fair amount. I might be paranoid- I always wake up in the morning and run downstairs to make sure my fish aren't dead... xD xD I care a lot about them but I have major issues worrying if they're okay... I just want to provide the best care for them as possible. Thank you for any answers that can be given!<3

Also, I'll try to get pictures as well as water test results but it's a little difficult considering Noodle is usually very active haha :]

 

[star4]

Its going to be hard to help without a picture of the little white marks, and I know photographing weather loach is not an easy task!. It could be possible that the male has already tried mating with the female as he will wrap himself around her and squeezes, when this happens she realeases her eggs but also releases air (the male will then guide her back to the surface to gulp air) this could be the bubbles on the surface I saw this when I bred my weather loach, but they dispersed after a few minutes. The white marks were left on my female where the male squeesed her, but they went again after a couple of weeks. However she should go thinner after mating, unless he has tried and she is not ready.

You wont be able to make your tank "ideal for breeding" as they spawn when its heavy rain and if your not watching you will miss it , there are signs you can watch for to know they are about to spawn.

As for the male being draped over plants, that sounds pretty normal, most of my weather loach babies are usually found lying on the branches or in the moss in their tank.

If you can get pics I will have a look see if they are mating marks for you

 

[Maddy]

Okay so here are some horrible pictures that I took haha. A lot of them actually were not blurry but ironically enough the clearer ones didn't show the circles as much. I circled the location on one of the pictures just in case:

I hope you can see what I'm talking about! Even I didn't notice them up until last weekend- unless they just spontaneously appeared

 

[Crossfire]

Those are prbably her internal organs or her ovaries filling up with eggs. She may not breed, but seeing as how small and young she is, little Noodle is going through loach puberty
No need to be alarmed. She's just growing up

 

[star4]

She is definately not egg plump, if you e-mail the pic I can blow it up and see if its breeding marks, it looks about in the right spot. My e-mail address is in my profile

 

[Maddy]

Those are prbably her internal organs or her ovaries filling up with eggs. She may not breed, but seeing as how small and young she is, little Noodle is going through loach puberty

No need to be alarmed. She's just growing up

Oh gosh, that's so cute!!<3 Well glad to know that she's most likely not pregnant or sick- even worse! I think I may worry about my fish a liiiittle too much sometimes ;P