SAEs getting fat

On Fri, 25 Feb 2005 12:27:53 -0800, "LM" wrote:

Hi,

I have 4 SAE's in the tank. they're all very active and healthy, but they
are such hogs, they're starting to look like they're carrying small balloons
in their belly (meaning, very fat.. sort of a fish-version of waddling).

I've tried reducing food.. then they're so fast ,they'll eat all the other
fish's share and other fish ended up starving. also, when I reduce food,
they start eating my Amazon sword and Java ferns, so they start looking like
strings (only the hard veins are left on the Amazons, and the ferns are
nibbled to the stump)

so.. to protect the plant, I end up giving the more food, and they continue
to get fat.

I dont' knwo what to do. I know it's unhealthy, but if I don't feed them
enough, they starve the other fish and eat all the plants while they
continue to get fat. also, they're starting to harass other smaller fish
(chain loachs) and I'm afraid they're going to end up as their snack
someday...

any thoughts? may be I should trade in 2 out of the 4 with some other
not-so-voracious fish?

linda


Hi Linda,

I have 8 SAEs in a 75 gallon community tank which includes 3 Plecos
and 6 Clown Loaches. I also have 3 SAEs in a 29 gallon community
tank and 1 SAE in a 10 gallon community tank. I feed all my fish
flake food. After almost 2 years only problem happened when I tried
cutting back on the food by going from 2 feedings a day to one. I
noticed by annubias leaves were getting lacy. I went back to feeding
twice and the plants are recovering. I am pretty sure the SAEs were
doing it. My 12 SAEs are about 3 inches. I can't say their stomachs
ballon, but definitely are full.

I use air in all my tanks, the flake food disperses quickly. I put in
large helpings so food is available throughout the tank rather
quickly. All the fishes, large and small get a pretty good shot. In
the 75 gallon some of the smaller fish stay away from the heavy food
concentration and wait for the current to bring food to them.

dick

Hi All,

thanks for all the replies.. seems like I'm just bound to keep them "fat"
and not worry... (altho one of my lace gouramis are getting abit pot-bellied
too... hmmm) at least it's nice to know it's hard to over-feed the tank
with SAE's on the loose.

I'll try to take a photo of them to see if they look unhealthily chubby. 2
of the 4 looks like a shark profile (if you know what I mean), but the other
2 looks like they swallowed a small rugby ball in their bellies.. definitely
a noticable potbelly. (as in "fat bellies" and not "cancerous growth
bellies")

Hopefully they'll be ok.. I thought they were only supposed to grow to 4in?
currently they are about 4in long from tip of their nose to the base of
their tailfins. are they going to get larger?? Now I'm worried if I have
overstocked my planted 37G tank:

4 SAE
4 pearl gouramis (t. leeri)
4 zebra loaches (b. striata)
3 chain/dwarf loaches (b. sidthemunkis)
? otocincluses (more than 3, less than 7...)
2 danios (both 2+ yr old, so they're getting old... don't intend to replace
them after they go to fish heaven)

my worry is that I started out with 3 young dwarf loaches (sidthemunkis)
that are about 1in long.. but now I can only see 2 at any given time. not
sure if the third one is hiding somewhere in the sword plant bush, or became
midnight SAE snack...

linda