Body shapes of taeniatus

[mybirdshit]

Was wondering something about the body shape of females certain forms of taeniatus. For certain forms, like Wouri, from pictures and live fish, I notice they have closer body shape to that of pulcher, which is they have rounded bellies. But for certain forms, like Dehane, I notice the female tends to have a somewhat sunken belly look. Both my females are are somewhat like that, no matter how much they eat, but the dominant one has a more pronounced sunken shape, even during the time I thought she was going to spawn. She has looked like this since purchase, and other than her shape, she is perfectly healthy. But her sunken belly look has me somewhat worried though.

What I want to know is, is such body shapes usual among some forms of taeniatus??

Some pics of her.

 

[tjudy]

All of the female taeniatus that I have kept get very rotund when they are developing eggs. Immediately after spawning they will get that sunken belly look, but it fills out agian over a week or so. Females will start to develop more eggs immediately, even though they may not spawn for months.

Have your fish spawned? I suspect that if they havae not gotten large, then they have not developed eggs. What are you feeding them? What are the water parameters?

 

[mybirdshit]

Nope, not laid eggs before. Though at some point this female did like to disappear into the broken cups for long periods.

What am I feeding? A mixture of foods, really. TetraPro Vegetable, TetraPrima, freeze dried Cyclopeeze, TetraDelica daphnia, bloodworm and brineshrimp, frozen special mix(mysis, daphnia and bloodworm) and frozen daphnia. Most of the time they are fed TetraPro Vegetable and TetraPrima and daphnia, the rest less frequent.

Water parameters...pH usually about 7.2-7.4, temperature usually 28-30 degrees celcius.

 

[tjudy]

Nothing in the diet sounds out of sinc. If your fish are not gaining weight and getting plump you might want to consider a mild treatment for internal parasites like nematodes or flukes. I suggest a treatment with Prazi-pro. It is very mild and will not harm other stuff in the tank.

 

[mybirdshit]

I recently got a product called WormerPlus, been wanting to try it out though measuring how much to use could be tricky. One sachet treats 50 gallons, but my tank is smaller than that. Trying to figure out how first to administer it right now.

 

[tjudy]

How large is the tank? Try this equation:

(water in tank/50 gal) x 100% - this will tell you what percentage of the sachet to use

Pour the sachet into a measuring tool. It is probably a small enough amount to put in a shot glass and measure with a dropper. If you know someone who works at a middle or high school have them go to the science department and bum a couple 1 ml dropper pipettes. They are cheap and disposable. They have a mark indicating 1 ml on the barrel, making measurement in ml easy.

 

[mybirdshit]

Tank is a 2 footer, 58 litres.

Thanks for the tip.:wink: