Aulonacara Holding?

[Peacock]

I have a 65 gal tank with 15 aulonacara and 5 synodontis petricola set up now for almost 1 and a half years and haven't had many problems. One of the female aulonacara has not been eating and the mouth and gills are moving almost constantly. She now is hideing most of the time, and will somtime come out when I feed, but does not go for the food. None of the other fish are harrassing her or showing a special interest in her. This has been going on now for 5 days, and I am wondering if she could be holding, or if this could be bloat. I haven't had any successful spawns as of yet nor have I had any experience with bloat. The fish were all juvies when I got them, and this female now is approximately 2" . (Not even sure if she is mature enough) Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!

[meepark]

Hi,
I had a similar problem when my malawi dolphin pair decided to try the mating thing. As far as I know there are a few ways to tell if she's holding. One would be that she is interested in the food but doesn't eat and yes, hides mostly. (Did you catch her and a male doing any type of mating ritual like circling or anything?)
If the eggs are fertilized in her mouth than she won't eat for a little while, maybe a couple of weeks to a month.
You might want to keep an eye on the space under her chin. If it seems to swell and grow, then she is holding and the fry are growing. Also, her mouth movements might be her rolling the eggs to give them the proper air they need.
You might want to start thinking about what to do with any possible surviving fry and if you want to raise them. There is a special process for this. If not, most will be eaten as eggs or fry, some might survive.
However, especially if she is a young female, the problem might take care of itself. Ours we think either was confused or ended up eating them because she was hungry. Often I guess, young cichlids don't get the mating thing down quite right the first time. My best advice would be to just keep watching her.
If her stomach is bloated and/or she has clear stringy poops, lays at the bottom or top of the aquarium, has a red anus, then it could be a definite sign of bloat. Treat early if it is. There are meds for this.
We had one fish of which we were concerned that he might have bloat but he's fine so far. Maybe don't feed the fish for a day or two or cut back of feeding, as one possible cause is overfeeding. Or you could try an epsom and regular salt mixture to make her poop (fish laxative).
But again, best advice. Just keep watching her.
Hope this helps.

[Pittbull]

Her chin would be dropped out not her gills at 5 days post spawn one way to check is to take a rounded small paperclip and push her mouth open gently to see if she has eggs but be careful and dont push her too much because she will spit her brood.

Also females holding eggs will do a shuffling with her mouth to move the eggs around..

Here are a couple of photos to help you out FYI these are not my fish or photos.. Just for comparison..

This is a female Lab holding eggs in her throat pouch (notice gills are fitted to head and not pushed out)
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This is Malawi Bloat (notice fat sides and eyes bulging)
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Hope this helps..

[Mr.peacock]

ok i will speak on this like pitt posted the females will breed right at two inches most of the time thats how u can tell if she is going to be a good breader and yes if she is not eating and hiding with all of the mouth and gill movement of tumbling the eggs in the mouth so to answer she is most likley to be holding som eggs bloat is most likley a fish will be verry fat and wide will not eat and be most of the time at the top of the tank or mid water u can try to fix it by feeding lettace





mr.p

[Pittbull]

Calling Dr. Peacock lettuce is for salads aye..

[Mr.peacock]

lol

[Pittbull]

Bro your silly i hope your not working too hard scrub..