From: enriquez@zikzak.apana.org.au (Luke Enriquez)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: Bloated tetra
Date: 9 Jan 1993 20:17:31 +1100
Organization: Zikzak public access UNIX, Melbourne Australia
NNTP-Posting-Host: zikzak.apana.org.au

Lynda Fincham <gaea@zooid.guild.org> writes:

>bbs.maddox@tsoft.net (Otto Maddox) writes:
>>Lynda Fincham <gaea@zooid.guild.org> writes:
>>
>>> Last night one of my neon's seem to get "bloated" - ie, his stomach got very
>>> large, and he couldn't sink to the bottom. He spent about half his time tryin
>>> to swim downwards at a rather steep angle, and the rest of the time lying on
>>> his side on the surface, resting I assume. I went out about 9pm, and didn't
>>> get in until 1am or so. I couldn't find him floating on the surface, so I
>>> figured that he'd either died, or gotten better. This morning he was fine, no
>>> further problems swimming, and he ate the flake food that I usually feed them
>>
>>My Frontosa does something like this often right after he eats.  While he 
>>doesn't look bloated he has trouble  sinking.  After watching and 
>>worrying over him for about a week a notice he would either burp out some 
>>large amounts of air wich I assume he swallowed with his food or he would 
>>"fart" for lack of a better word.
>>
>>Mine only does this occasionally and he is the only fish I have that does 
>>it.  Could be your problem.

>Well, just after sending some email to someone (wouldn't you know it), I
>noticed that one of my neon's had died. It must have gotten bloated this
>morning when I fed them, and I hadn't looked closely at the tank until I went
>to feed them tonight. I'm not sure if it's the same tetra that was bloated
>before (they all look the same, with the exception of one that had his tail
>chewed off - it's now growing back well, but is shorter than the others). It
>was suggested to me that the one tetra that was getting bloated was just
>exceptionally stupid and gulping air when it ate, but I guess that remains to
>be seen if it was only the one tetra. Now that it's dead, I'll be able to see
>if any of the others are doing it.

	The problem may be the fact that your are feeding them flake? The
problem with flake is that it swells once it gets wet. The nature of the
fish, is, of course, to eat as much as possible if the food is available.
The fish does not realise (Poor fish) that the food will increase in size,
causing severe intajestion (Sorry bout the spelling).
	Flake swells because its mainly made from a cerial base. If you
took a piece of bread, wet it, it would most likely increase in size. I
therefore, would reconmend that you make your Flake food *PART* of each
meal fed to your fish, not only ingredienct in the meal. Flake should
only represent 30% of your fish's meal, the rest could be a mixture of:

	Brine Shrimp (Sea Monkeys)
	Mosquito Lava (Do you have mosies in the states?)
	Maggots (Blow Fly Lava)
	Mashed Shrimp
	Mashed Fish
	Bioled Mashed Lettuce and Zucchini
	Blood Worms
	Beef Heart

	I have found that a mixture of all the above (say, type diff type
each meal time) mixes up the flavour the fish taste, and in conjunction
with a few live worms dug up from the back yard, you can even breed fish
on this stuff there that happy.

Regards,
Luke
EDAS (Eastern Districts Aquarium Society of Australia)
ANGFA (Australian and New Guinea Fishes Association)


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