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My Synodontis looks like it swallowed a marble


luis

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Apologies for the fuzzy mobile phone pic. One of my catfish is really swollen. It's hard to tell from the pic but kind of looks like it swallowed a few small marbles 5mm in diameter rather than a single larger one if you know what I mean.

2015-07-10-20h34m46s796.png

Apart from how it looks it's behaving pretty normally, the only strange thing is that it likes to hang out on the water surface (upside-down). But I just attribute that to the fact that it has learned that's where I feed. :)

Is this something to be concerned about?

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What are you feeding it?

The reason I ask is because you might start with trying to flush the fish with greens...like peas, cucumber etc.

I have no idea but food is always a good place to start if there are no emergencies. Maybe fast him (the tank) for a few days.

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I feed my cichlids in this tank Hikari Cichlid Excel sinking pellets, with the catfish claiming any pellets that happen to make it to the substrate. This particular fish will swim around where I am feeding and might catch a pellet if I happen to drop it while he's swimming by.

Occasionally, no more than once a week, I will drop an algae wafer in there specifically for the catfish. But I get the feeling they do well just off the algae on rocks and any leftovers from the cichlids. I haven't had any holding females in a while but I suppose they would eat fry as well.

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I dunno about the fry...I have 15 multies in mine and I have so many hybrid fry swimming around its driving me crazy lol

Hopefully someone has seen this or has an idea as to what it is.

maybe quarantine him and give him a dose of antibiotics

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ANSWER:(ish) Guys I had this with my petricola I heard the females are getting ready to breed I had 3/5 of mine get really fat (producing eggs) they produce around 50-150 hence why their little bellies can get so fat, if it's not that I fed my petricola on hikari sinking as well that might have done something but only to 3 and not all 5 that is rare! But I would still be cautious watch them closely and all the parameters!

Play it safe give them some pees if you feel like you need to!

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from the pic it looks more like a distension in the gut rather than bulking up into spawning condition

can you post a slightly clearer pic ?

what substrate do you have ........ are there any small pebbles?

I have lost a Peppermint from compacted sand in the gut and have had a friend with a Siamese Tiger

that swallowed a pebble and was fine for years but because of the size never managed to pass it

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I have coral sand as substrate, there are some larger grains but nothing as large as gravel. The shape of it is very gravel-like though, you're right about that. It is not an even swelling as I have seen before on these fish (assuming eggs).

Could it be air? The fish's skin is kind of transparent and there seems to be nothing inside. How big would an egg be? These are fully grown Syno lucipinnis.

I am hesitant to medicate as I've had these fish for a few years with no problems whatsoever and there hasn't been any change in the tank, really. I think I will observe a bit more before taking any action. The most I may do is catch the fish so I can have a better look and take a photograph.

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RIght, I fed the cichlids today but I made sure this fish didn't get any. Just had to time it right after a swim-by. ;) Grabbed the LX3 and took some pics hoping they would turn out better than phone pics.

P1090417.jpg

The swelling has moved to a different part of the body. And it has also decreased in volume.. Weird stuff.

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Guess who's right [emoji57] oh yeah 5 points to griffindor! XD, well hope all is well, some petricola are so sneaky while the cichlids are breeding the petricola lay their eggs and eat the cichlids then once the female cichlids realises that it has catfish in its mouth well (gulp)!

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seems that way ...... fingers crossed Luis

do you have the breeding trap set up in the tank ?

flower pot over a chinese container full of marbles

I'm not really set up to breed these guys.. I might give it a try after I free up the QT, although lucipinnis are very slow growers so it would probably be 8 months before I could sell them.. Assuming there's even demand.

What's a chinese container? Googling this shows me a heap of noodle boxes and cargo ships full of containers. :D

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Just go to bunnings and grab a terracota plant pot, and choose the underneath dish that the pot fits nicely on turned upside down.

Don't pile small marbles in dish, but enough for one layer and all touching each other.

Take a peice out the top rim of pot before turning upside down,,,, bit larger than the catfish fish itself to fit through.

Job done.

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  • 5 months later...

This fish didn't survive my recent 12-day holiday. :(

My theory is that the lack of food plus the bullying it was subject to (other Synos never let it stay at the bottom, it had to stay near the top) were finally too much...

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