Fry doing somersaults.

[Hellfishguy]

I've noticed that after feeding my Dicrossus maculatus fry BBS one or two of them start swimming erratically in circles, eventually settling on the bottom & breathing heavily. I assume they eventually recover since I've never seen a corpse. I've had this experience with very small anabantoid fry but never with cichlids. What gives?

 

[themountain]

Maybe that shrimp was too salty

 

[Hellfishguy]

I hadn't thought of that. I know that you're supposed to rinse BBS with fresh water before feeding, but I've never done that, & up til now I've never noticed any adverse effects.

 

[gerald]

My guess is their feeding instinct keeps going after their belly is full, and live shrimp are backing up in the esophagus and throat. Eventually they either spit some out or pass them through. In nature it would be unlikely they would come across so much food in one place to over-gorge. Be careful if feeding blackworms to fry - they take longer to die in the gut than BS do, and can do damage while thrashing around. I always chop them up small on a cutting board before feeding to fish smaller than 1".