[JustJen]

I noticed tonight that all 3 of my koi angels seem to be rather bloated (unless exceptionally fat is an option). The pic attached is the worst of the 3, and all other (non angel) fish in the tank look fine. Sorry the pic is dark, they are in a 46 bow and they insist in being front and center (out of the light) when I'm near the tank in case im going to feed them . All are aggressively eating and all are extremely active. Anything I should worry about here, and if so, what do you suggest doing?

 

[Nordic]

Unless their poop looks funny, you probably overfed them. They are pigs. Skip food for a day or two and observe them.

 

[jaymyess]

Yep, they're pigs. He's overfed. I am guilty of that... right now lol.

 

[bigbadjon]

I fast my fish on Wed and Sun to let them purge. Its good insurance against bloat.

 

[JustJen]

I do fast them a couple days a week, and actually thought I might be kind of under feeding because I've added fish recently but haven't really increased the feed. I found the issue tonight though. I dropped an algae wafer in for my plecos at lights out, and the 3 little piggies are hogging it for themselves and not letting the plecos anywhere near it! I'd done the same the night before noticing them all bloated looking. Dumb fish. lol!

 

[monkeyruler90]

how's your water quality?

 

[JustJen]

No issues on water quality. Pretty sure the issue is them hogging the algae wafers from the plecos (so getting more food than I realized they were eating).

 

[studentclimber]

This is going to sound weird. Sometimes some fish get constipated and it screws with their ability to maintain size and buoyancy. The best thing I have seen for this is to thaw a few frozen peas and squeeze them out of their shell into the tank. Repeat daily for a couple days. No clue why it works, but its the equivalent of prunes to humans. Unplugs em.

 

[Nordic]

Just keep an eye on the stools, angels are very prone to having problems with heximita, which are flagellate organisms that live in the guts, these guys also cause hole in the head disease. It can be treated with metro, twice a day until it resolves, then dose levamisol to clean up any nematodes or worms that metro didn't kill or they will take over the vacancy.

Flagellates will give very thick mucusey stools. Worms and nematodes will make more brittle white stools but they can still be long and stringy.

 

[JustJen]

They're fine, just pigs!

They had essentially "deflated" yesterday until I tossed in the algae wafers last night (which is when I realized they were snacking on them). They polished off the 2 wafers between them and were ballooned up again this morning. One of them is back to normal and the other two are pooping a lot (looks totally normal) and slowly returning to normal size. Lesson learned, no more algae wafers! Plecos are just going to have to go back eating naturally occuring algae and the regular food that makes it to the bottom!