Inflated! Pregnant or sick?

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BillyHal

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Dec 5, 2002
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During the last 15 days my angelfish looks like this (see photo). It is awfully inflated on the belly area, as if it has a very large tumor beneath the skin. It is also breathing heavily and its eyes are a bit protruding. If you look it en face, it is almost two times wider than my other angelfish. It is about 1 1/2 year old. What confuses me though is the fact that from time to time it lets jelly little bubbles out of its belly. Could it be a pregnancy or is it a disease? And please, could anyone tell me at last how to tell a male from a female angelfish? I do not know what this one is.

PS. Sorry about the quality of the photo, it's the best I could do for now...

image015.jpg
 
That is not pregnancy. Sounds like dropsy, or a bacterial infection that is affecting the swim bladder. Bubbling fish are not good.

Check water parameters, do a water change, and get that fish into a q-tank. I'd treat with a broad spectrum antibiotic.
 
Agree. Since angelfish don't get pregnant it can't be pregnant. If the eyes are protruding, the body is filling with fluid from an infection.

You need an antibiotic in the food, ideally, and to ensure that water conditions are perfect. I don't fancy your changes, frankly.

Sorry to be the bearer of bad news.
 
telling a male from a female

The easiest way (maybe the only way?) to tell the difference is when they are going to spawn. Near the angels’ vent a tube will come down. In the female it is widerer and blunt at the end. In the male it is more slender and angled (pointed). It is a whitish colour. I have read other ways of sexing them by how smooth or bumpy their foreheads were, but I was never able to distinguish them this way.
 
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