Tropical Fish Forums

[d-townmike]

Got a 20 gallon tank, 2 mickey mouse platys, 2 black neon tetras, and 4 regular neon tetras. Oh an an otto as well (plecos just get too big).

The tank is several months old, never any real problems in quite a long time and pH is normal. I just noticed today one of my neon tetras is quite pudgy. It is still eating and swimming normally and scales look fine. I know neons are egg-layers, but didn't think they had a really noticeable pregnant belly. I've also had neons for many, many years and I've never seen this before.

Here are a couple of pictures with my camera phone (digital camera just couldn't catch that good image):





Any suggestions or advice would be helpful!

[lularib]

Does it look like cotton? It is most unlikely that this belly aspect refers to reproduction. It is probably some kind of disease, such as fungus. I hope it is not the neon tetra disease, with no known cure, as far as I now. I would put this fish aside, in a hospital tank and observe it further.

Good luck

[59FIFTY]

This happened multiple times with my neons that I had a few years back. I never got any babies. It just went down after a few weeks. Make sure that specific tetra is not being a pig and eating all the food and make sure you do not over-feed them.
_________________
In the End, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends. - Martin

[lularib]

Sure. It can be overfeeding too.

[d-townmike]

It still has a silvery color to it; sometimes whiteish depending how the light shines off it.

It's eating, but not like a pig. That's what my Mickey Mouse Platys do.

I'll try to cut back on the amount of food I drop in, but I've been doing that for a month now.

Think I should only feed them a tiny pinch of flakes once a day instead of twice?

[lularib]

I would stick to two times a day little feeding but in one of those I would offer just some spirulina based food. Vegetarian food is good if he is overfed. Will help him empy his intestines. Also I would check the quality of the food that is being presently offered.

[Brenda24]

neon tetra's (I'm assuming) need a 10 gallon tank
they need groups of 6 or more