Fish too Fat! (1 Viewer)

[deneed4spd]

So I have a percula clown and she is fat. I mean her belly looks like she belongs to the goldfish species. I dont think she is preggo since the other clown doesnt seem to be really paired with her. They dont sleep in the same area.

I just got a jawfish and so I been putting in a decent amount of food in the tank to get the jawfish to plump up. Now that is done I am wondering how much is the correct amount to feed fish?

I currently have 2 percs, one being 2.5 inches (fat one) and the other being 2 inches (a little plump), a diamond goby 3.5 inches, a yellow coris 3.5 inches, jawfish 3.5 inches.

I feed approx 1/2 a cube of food in the morning and at night. Is that too much? I would say 1/2 cube = 1/4 teaspoon. The food seems to be all eaten in 2 or less mins.

 

[capman]

Frequent feeding should not be a problem for the fish, and this is a very good idea with fish like jawfish (yellowheaded jawfish?) that are plankton feeders and normally would be eating little bits of food more or less continuously throughout the day. Frequent feeding can make a big difference for such fish. And people trying to breed fish (including clownfish) tend to feed frequently to get them into breeding condition.

In my observation, a much more common problem for fish in reef tanks tends to be underfeeding. There are a LOT of emaciated and often stunted fish in reef tanks (I see this a lot with tangs and rabbitfish, though yellowheaded jawfish are even more susceptible to developing poor health as a result of inadequate food in my experience).

Mature female percula clowns can get to be very plump when they have eggs developed inside. It is conceivable that this could happen even if she is not paired off (some female fish will develop eggs even if they have no-one to spawn with). Clownfish do not have internal fertilization, so they don't become pregnant in the way that you might be thinking, but they develop large numbers of eggs prior to spawning.

On the other hand, she might be bloated as a result of something wrong with her. I suspect this is not what is going on, but if you had a good photo of the fish it would allow us to give you better feedback on this.

 

[deneed4spd]

ill try to get a pic of her tonight. I dont see any visibal marks on her. I see a white dot on the top side of her thinking its ick but i think she is swimming in and out of a frogspawn (where she sleeps) that might have nicked her up. She is breathing pretty heavy so maybe it is ick. dont know..

 

[capman]

Fish can become overweight, by the way, and this can cause health problems. But I really doubt this is a problem in your case.

 

[capman]

ill try to get a pic of her tonight. I dont see any visibal marks on her. I see a white dot on the top side of her thinking its ick but i think she is swimming in and out of a frogspawn (where she sleeps) that might have nicked her up. She is breathing pretty heavy so maybe it is ick. dont know..

OK, if she is breathing heavier than normal this could be a sign of some problem.

 

[RaysReef]

if its not preg, it could be a bacterial or parasitic infection, swim bladder perhaps?

 

[deneed4spd]

She is swimming horizontal like normal so I dont know. I know she usually eats like a pig. This morning I fed them right after the lights went on so she might have been startled. Ill see how she eats tonight.

Yes, a yellow head and that yellow head has quite a belly. Loves to eat.

 

[curlyq]

When you are feeding, make sure she is getting some roughage also (i.e. not all meaty foods - some nori or other veggies typical of a "Rod's" mix or other). I've had clownfish that was like a beagle - had no "off" switch to eating. She ate herself into some pretty bad bloating which only subsided after including some greens in her diet.

 

[deneed4spd]

Yup. I feed them food from Kate's party that has a mixture of everything.

 

[deneed4spd]

I tried to take pics but fish is to dang fast. Ill just cut back on the amt of food but still feed twice a day. They all look to fat!