Cichlid Fish Forum banner

Baffled

2K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  Ceejai7 
#1 ·
Hi again everyone,
As stated in my 1st post, I am new to the Cichlid keeping hobby. I started off with a Red Zebra over 3 years ago and always thought it was a "he". It was sold to me as a male. I have recently added new Mbunas to the tank and just noticed earlier today that its throat was bulging and it seemed to have a hard time keeping its mouth shut. I looked at pictures of RZ holding and it was identical to how my fish looked. I did water changes on my tanks, looked again and the RZ looked back to normal. No pocket or bulge in the throat area. I inspected the tank and have not seen anything. I assumed the eggs or fry were eaten. I just looked in the tank and AGAIN, the bulge is back and the fish seems as if it cannot keep its mouth shut completely. I cannot figure out what is going on.

My 15 year old was getting upset with me a couple of weeks ago because I was not paying him much attention when he was telling me he thought there was something wrong with the RZ. He described it as its gills moving a lot. I thought the fish looked fine and was not behaving differently so I discounted what he said. Now, I wonder if maybe the fish was holding back then. I will post a pic that I took earlier today after I figure out the simplest way to do so
 
#3 ·
That looks like a holding fish, but some of mine will hold food in their mouths like a holding fish for a few minutes after I feed them. They'll sometimes move their mouth like they are "chewing gum" when they have eggs, because they need to move water over them.
 
#14 ·
Thank you for all of your input. Since I am still somewhat ignorant when it comes to these fish, can you please point out to me what is different about my fish's body from Red Zebras? And any ideas of sex? It is fully mature as I have had it for over 3 years. Thank you again:)
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top