Syno Lucipinis Swollen

[fridayman]

Hi -

For the last couple of months I have been trying everything to get my Synos to breed, and then this morning I saw a very swollen one. The thing is she looks more bloated than holding eggs, but because I haven't had them spawn before I can't be sure. Can anyone help?

[Birger]

A side shot would be better for me to have a look.

It does look like a gravid female but they also tend to overindulge a bit when given the chance, could be a combo of both.

Is it acting normal, have you made any changes to your feeding regime lately or any other changes?

Oh and by the way to me this is

Synodontis lucipinnis

this is a farly recent change and is still often lumped together with

Synodontis petricola

in the commercial arena.

Birger

[fridayman]

It's quite difficult to get a side shot, but here is another pic.

She isn't acting entirely normal, in that she is spending a lot more time than usual up against the front of the tank. Her buoyancy seems to be fine. What I feed them hasn't changed but I did remove about 6 of them recently, so may not have reduced the quantities of food accordingly. I have also started do smaller and more frequent water changes (about 10% every 2nd day).

[Birger]

She isn't acting entirely normal, in that she is spending a lot more time than usual up against the front of the tank. Her buoyancy seems to be fine. What I feed them hasn't changed but I did remove about 6 of them recently, so may not have reduced the quantities of food accordingly. I have also started do smaller and more frequent water changes (about 10% every 2nd day).

She may be getting pestered by the males more.
It is easy to keep giving the same amount of food you always have even with less fish...that and the more frequent water changes would be doing it (educated guess) I would stop feeding for a couple days just to make sure and if she is gravid it should not be hard to keep her that way once you know for sure.

You may get your wish of a spawn soon...good luck!

Birger

[fridayman]

OK, thanks. I'll stop feeding them for 2 or 3 days and see how she gets along.

[fridayman]

A quick update:

I ended up treating the tank with Interpet#9 just in case, and the next day she was completely back to normal. I checked all the pots for eggs but found nothing so can only assume she was bloated. Anyway, she is fine now.

[Richard B]

Good that the fish is ok now