I have issues. (qeustions haha)

[Peta]

I have fish issues.....

These questions have been on my mind of late - couldn't think where to post them so have just done it here.......

Having the girls has opened up a whole new section of fish related questions in my head... I've tried to find a few answers but feel I'm not getting the right answers

1. how do you know if and when the girly fish has eggs?? - I know the stripe thing - but what I'm wondering is if they bellies get bigger - the colour of their chest changes at all?

main reason for that question is while fussing over my fish lately I've noted that all three seem to be sporting 'bellies' and they seem to be 'white' ish - but not white if that makes anysense? - well the two dt's both have kind of gold bellies (and they both have this colour quality to them normaly - but it's now more pronounced' - have read up on diseases and what not - other then the bellies their doesn't seem to be any symptoms/danger signs (neuortic mother and all)

2. how big should girls grow?? How can you tell ages/stages of fish??

mian reason for this question is because Rosie - the VT in the bunch. Never seems to 'hold' her colour. She's always quick to drop her colour. She only seems to be 'blue' when she seems REALLY happy or b/ when she's seen eric in his tank (then she shows the baring and goes a deep blue - guess she thinks he's hot )

... All three of the girls are TINY compared to Eric. All three seem to be around the same size but they are as I said 'tiny' I was reading about breeding - and have watched enough 'fishy porn' <~~ spawning video's on you tube. And the Males and females seem to be of relative equal size - minus fins.

So wondering if my girls are still VERY young?!

3. if I don't want them to spawn so I try to keep Eric from seeing the girls?

I admit that I put the tanks up against one another today - and he showed signs of being keen on the girls (he was swiming up flashing them - then swiming back up the tank to where a little bubble nest was/is - and I'm not sure if that was already there or he created it when the girls where showing LOL)

I have no intention of spawing him at the moment as I haven't got the time or room - but thought it would be interesting to see them socailise with one another.

[Canfeleq]

I have found that it can be difficult to tell the ages of females in particular, just by observation. There are many factors that can effect growth, water conditions, food and illness, not to mention genetics, can all have an influence on the ultimate size of your fish. If your females are barring up at the sight of a male and look like they are full of eggs then they are probably sexually mature enough to breed. It has been my experience that females without eggs do not show the vertical bars in the presense of a male.

If your female is not holding her colour, and she is not obviously sick, then either something is stressing her out or she is young. I observed in your photos that one of your females was showing stress stripes, (greyish brown colour with two horizontal stripes) this is also the colour of very young fish.

[y2jdaze]

question 1, they always have eggs inside them just like we do, and when they are happy and feeling ready to breed they can produce more, this of course gives them that eggy looking belly and the colour of the belly is just the stretching and the whiteness of the eggs.

question 2, most girls will be around the same size as the male to slightly smaller when they are adults, however as said before a whole range of factors contribute as to whether they actually make it to that size. it's possible that yours are still reasonably young.

Rosie could just be bottom of the rung in their little pack as in the other 2 are boss over her and she's being a little stressed by them I've found my "bottom of the rung" girls to show some reduced colour or horizontal stripes in that situation, if she doesn't look sick there's nothing to worry about and as said before these horizontal stripes could also indicate her young age, as long as she's colouring up and vertical barring at Eric she's mature enough to spawn and healthy.

question 3, if you don't intend to spawn I would keep the girls from seeing Eric, if they see him too often they could be thinking "man he's hot, I want some of that!" and start producing more eggs, this could lead to them becoming eggbound which we don't want to happen so let them see each other occaisionally just not all the time :thumbs:

[Rainy]

personaly i judge if there ready to breed by there "attitude" toward the male, colour size and age are not always a garentee ime obviously if the femals are showing breeding stripes this is a good indicator but not all do due to there colour. when conditioning the pair for breeding i usualy i get the best idea of if she is ready just get to know your fish and the personality change when seeing a male will tell you if she is ready or not hth

[Peta]

Thanks guys (gals) ...

I think all three of them might be still on the young side. I moved Rosie out of the middle divider a while back as I thought the other two girls might be stressing her out (ie having a fish on either side), but she still does the colour drop thing regardless. She can go from a really dark blue - to the pale ('stressed') look pretty easily. she seems to fluctuate. Funny enough she's also the one who I've seen the vertical baring on!

I think I might do a bit of research on what eggbounding is...

I do fuss over these guys a lot!! Currently Hidie is having a bad day, she's been a little off and acting weird - she was hideing head down under the heater last night ... and has been 'sulking' at the bottom of the tank. Still swimming fine - still eating - and nothing on the outside to show anything to worry about (put her under my new light - she's not even showing stress lines..

Might even do some water testing to see what the ph etc is like in there at the moment.