Bloated, Full of eggs or is it just fat?

[JDogg]

i do not mean to offend any of you true catfish lovers, but i am ultimatly a cichlid man

i do find that catfish are my second favorite group of fish i keep, and i have at least 1 species in everyone of my cichlid tanks...

i have a featherfin syno (Synodontis eupterus) that i have become somewhat worried about and am looking for the opinions of the experts!

i have had him/her for two years now. he/she started out (about 1 inch long) living with a group of malawi cichlids where he/she was the dominate fish and would chase the cichlids around.

in the last few weeks i have had to down size my fish room in preparation for a move and have sold off the malawi tank. i have realy enjoyed the featherfin though so i have kept it. he/she has now taken up residence (having grown to over 7-8 inches) in with my 10+ inch tiger oscar (Diablo, named such because he killed off all the fish in he former owner's tank , so i adoped him). i have no concern for his saftey as Diablo spends most of his time in the uper 2-3 of the tank the the syno ofscourse lives on the bottom, plus i have seen him/her chase of the malawi cichlids so i know he/she has some fight in him/her.

my concern is that he/she has developed a rather large gut.

as part of the move there has been a change in diet.

with my malawi cichlids he/she ate mostly new life spectrum's and tetramin's cichlid formulas. both of which sank and the syno could share with the cichlids.

Diablo's diet is a little different however...
he eats New life spectrum's large fish formula and tetramin's cichlid sticks, freeze dried crickets and krill all or which float. add to this live earthworms, and my own homemade veggie food (carrots, spinich and other veg i have lying around thrown in the blender and turn into a past that is them spread out and frozzen to be feed in chuncks once or twice a week). now i am sure that the syno gets "some" of this but not much so i have resored to getting him/her some sinking foods. these are new life spectrum's community fish formula, tetramin tropical tablets, Aqueon Bottom Feeder Tablets and Hikari algae wafers. even these the syno only gets what diablo does not snatch on its way down

so...
#1 do you think this large gut is anything to worry about? (it was always big, but is bigger now)

#2 any thoughts on what i am feeding him/her?

TIA!

i just preview this and you all must concider cichlids a swear word! LOL

[Birger]

#1 do you think this large gut is anything to worry about? (it was always big, but is bigger now)

These are notorious for getting their share of food and when someone is asking a question about a large stomach on a syno it is usually on a eupterus.
Something else I thought of though is the change in water chemistry may be affecting it in some way, that is I am assuming you had Malawi Water conditions in the former tank and now have different water parameters for the Oscar.

#2 any thoughts on what i am feeding him/her?

Anytime you abruptly change a diet for a fish there is a chance of causing intestinal problems...generally should do the changeover slowly, the foods themselves seem okay and varied but maybe the floating foods are affecting in some way or not getting a chance to swell before being eaten.(if these even do this, I have not fed floating foods in a long time)
If you want to be sure of the cat getting its sinking food feed after the lights have been out for a while.

i just preview this and you all must concider c*****ds a swear word! LOL

http://planetcatfish.com/faq/index.php? ... opular=yes

Many of us do keep Cichlids as well...they are handy for cleaning and scavenging leftovers in the Catfish tanks

Birger

[JDogg]

Something else I thought of though is the change in water chemistry may be affecting it in some way, that is I am assuming you had Malawi Water conditions in the former tank and now have different water parameters for the Oscar.

no change is water chem, my tap water is rather hard.. ph 8.0 kh 23 and gh 12 so good for the cichlids and the oscar is adapted to my tap water...

thanks!