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It's Baby!!!

Jeeze hasn't baby gotten big! Don't assume it is stunting just yet, maybe baby is pregnant or just a little on the plump side Looks as though he is doing well...Great to hear...Heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Whoooooa!! Baby needs a diet

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Water, taken in moderation, cannot hurt anybody. -- Mark Twain

Riiiight... it was pointed out that I didn't exactly give background on the situation.

Baby was rescued as a fry (prolly a few days old at the most) and was thought to be a livebearer. As is obvious, he/she is most definitely NOT a livebearer, but rather seems to be a brb of some type. Leaning towards rosy barb or neon rosy barb. *shrugs* No ideas. I've never kept barbs, but he DOES look like the rosy barbs I see for sale...

Edit: yeah, Baby's fat. The twenty gallon gets fed more sparingly since the betta girls tend to get chubby, too... hopefully Baby will slim down!

Last edited by Kitten at 12-Mar-2005 21:39

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Baby is some kind of barb, which are notorious not knowing when to stop eating. As long as you have live plants in your tank, you are going to have a fat fish.

At work we had a Barbus pentazona in the bunch plant tank, and she would eat nonstop all day long. She was enormously fat, and despite the way she looked, she still acted perfectly normal and was the boss of the tank. It seems like the same scenario that you are having with Baby.

The only suggestion I have is that maybe you get some more barbs of a similar species, so hopefully they will all chase each other around and Baby will lose some weight.

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I'm not your neighbor, you Bakersfield trash.

Yeah... I want to get Baby some friends, but I was hoping to figure out exactly which barb to get before I did!

Like, I said, he's now in my 20 gallon long, and that's the biggest tank I can offer. There's currently six betta girls, three black neons and nine cories (four trilines, one agassizzi, four pandas).

I'm looking to get rid of the neons. Even if I manage to do that, I'm not sure how well a few barbs would work. *starts adding up the inches*

How overstocked would I be if I got one or two more barbs? Rosies are okay in pairs?

Going back to the listing of fish that the store carried at that time, lemme pick out the different barbs... Cherry, Rosy, Black Ruby, Tinfoil, Tiger (various color types), Neon (rosy?).

Definitely not cherry, black ruby, tiger or tinfoil. That leaves rosy and neon... Not saying that they didn't mislabel a fish. *shrugs* They have a very limited selection.

He gets around easily, despite the belly... took me a while to net him out of the 12 gallon he was in. Moves quite quickly, really!

Last edited by Kitten at 13-Mar-2005 00:14

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

*sobs* Baby's dead!

I don't know what happened... he was FINE yesterday, swimming around, chasing the panda cories... eating (as usual). I even turned on the lights last night for a last photo shoot and he was there, seemed happy.

I went to do water changes on the betta boys and paused to look in the 20 gallon... didn't see Baby. I looked all over. I even moved rocks and ornaments. No Baby. I mean, he's normally all over the tank and very obvious. But I couldn't find him. I even sprinkled a little food on the surface, hoping to tempt him out. Nothing.

I went and did the water changes I'd planned on doing, then came back to look for Baby again... and found his corpse right in front of the tank. His eyes were gone and he was little but head, hollow shell and tail. Apparently his tankmates didn't have an compunctions over eating their deceased roomie.

He'd only been in the 20 gallon for a short time, but no one had ever chased him or shown him aggression, in fact, he was the one chasing the pandas. I don't understand what happened.

*cries* My poor Baby...

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

That's really sad, especially given all you've done for him.

My guess is that he had some sort of inner problem.

Check out this guy's yellow lab. He died of internal parasites: link
(click on the tank in the upper left portion)

Last edited by johnsmith at 16-Mar-2005 16:01

Apparently Thread #2 is MIA... I temporarily broke the freshwater forum while attempting to update the thread... got all script-errory on me. I swear it's not my fault! *hides*

Anyway, here's what I posted...

Wow, has been ages since I posted pics of Baby. Baby is definitely no longer a baby... he's getting big. Chunky, really. I don't know if it's results of being stunted in the overcrowded ten gallon or what. He was in the five gallon for a while, then moved to the twelve gallon (it's like a tall ten gallon in dimensions)... it's working, but either he's being an absolute PIG and eating all the food, or he's still stunting. His stomach is HUGE.

Anyway, I've moved him up yet again, this time to my 20 gallon long. It's the biggest tank I have, so it will HAVE to do. The betta girls don't seem to mind him thus far.

The reason behind moving Baby - besides his big belly - was because I've been told he might attack the algae that's growing in this tank. *shrugs* Not like he NEEDS more to eat. However, he'll have more fish to compete with for food in this tank, so hopefully he'll slim down.

I don't see WHY he was stunting in the 12 gallon (if, indeed, his stomach is caused by stunting), as tank mates were three danios and three guppies. I thought that would be sufficient... he's really not that big, maybe an inch and a half, and all the other fish are very slim bodied. *shrugs* Maybe he was eating the leaves shed from the plants? (Some lost leaves as they settled into the tank.) I don't know. Can anyone diagnose?

The pictures aren't very good... he just moved into the tank and was a bit flighty.



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Last edited by Kitten at 16-Mar-2005 15:20[/font]

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

I guess at least I can say that Baby didn't have to live another day in that disgusting breeder box I found him in at the LCPS. He didn't get squished to death like his sib did when the idiot clerk tried to fish them out of said box. He was loved and adored by many from all over the world... all those who followed his story happily.

I'm happy I gave him that chance, but it's still so sad that he had to pass on. I'm gonna miss that lil sparkle of gold in my tanks. Once I move out of the 'rents house and am able to get a good sized tank, I'm definitely going to get rosy barbs (or neon rosies, whichever peeks my fancy) to the stocking list. And maybe they'll all have the name "baby" in different languages or something.

Edit: Got verb? *smacks self*

Last edited by Kitten at 19-Mar-2005 22:25

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Kitten, one of my rosy barb girls went exactly like that

it was pretty hard to accept, because she was perfectly fine the day befoire, albeit that odd bloated shape, with the slightly straightened spine, and then gone she was

I'm so sorry about baby

But i'll bet she lived the high life while in your care, and that is the best you can hope for, that we do our best while we can

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

He could possibly have gotten sand... there's sand in the 12 gallon where he was just before the 20 gallon. It wasn't until he was moved into the 12 that he started getting fat. I figured it was because he was such a piggy... always eating everything he could get his mouth on. I actually probably overfed that tank because he would eat so much and one of my danios was looking practically starved...

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

ive got a bunch of rosy barbs in my tank, i have 5 what seem very very happy and healthy then two who looks like runts.

the one who blew up into a ball (has survived about a month i would guess)

and another which just hasnt ever grown and never really got ROSY colourings.

Because mine blew up like a ball like yours did i dont think its because of stunting as mine are in a fairly large tank.

I had wondered if mine had maybe eaten something it couldnt digest like a small bit of gravel or wood? or a snail shell?

just an idea.

Sorry about your loss aswell, i really like my rosy barbs and find myself watching them all the time.

He never colored up into mature colors (could have been a she, for all I know) but he was definitely either a rosy barb or a neon rosy barb. *sigh*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Is the fish we are talking about a Rosy Barb or have i got that wrong?

I just hope there wasn't something that others could catch. Like I said, there wasn't much left of him... I don't know who ate him, but I'm sure everyone probably got at least something. Except maybe the black neons. *sigh*

The thing is, he ACTED healthy up until the day he died. Always all over the place, active, chasing the pandas... If, however, this spreads (whatever "THIS" is) I'm going to be pretty pissed off. I did NOT put Baby in this tank only to see all my girls die off! *protects her betta girls from whatever may come*

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

Wow, what a shocker. I just wandered into this thread and everything was all happy, and then bang! Baby's dead

Kitten, I must say that Baby did not appear healthy to me. Something was wrong, imho. With that size gut, either she was experiencing egg impaction or even a possible liver problem. When the liver swells the body fo the fish gets huge. Been there, seen that when I cut one such fish open.

Sorry it didn't work out and keep in mind it may have nothing to do with anything you did. Fish get cancers, genetic defects, etc.

Diane

Yeah, fishyhelper, if the moron netting him and his sib out of the breeder box hadn't been a complete incompetent, I would have had two babies.

heidi... the thing of it is that I've had guppy fry and losing them, (and I only kept the first batch or so) even once they'd matured, didn't hurt as much as this. I think it was going through all the excitement of finding out what he was, getting him from nasty breeder box to clean tank... all those things I did for him, including getting a new tank (even if it WAS only a 12 gallon)... I think that's what makes this hurt more. And then on top of it, my mom's making me feel guilty because Baby was her favorite fish of mine. I didn't TRY to kill him! :#(

cols - I have no idea what happened to Baby... he WAS quite big, but he'd been that way for at least a month. I figured he was either stunting or overeating. I couldn't figure out what to do if it was overeating, though, because the tank I had him in before has a danio that looks like he's starving. I mean, his stomach was nearly concave while Baby was enormous. The danio seems to be doing better now.

He seemed healthy and active even so few as 12 hours before I found him dead. He was quite thoroughly cannibalized when I found him. Though between seven betta girls and nine cories... I guess they could have made short work of him. His scales were still brilliantly gold when I found him.

~Meow. Thus spoke the cat.~

that has happened to one of my rosy barbs, any idea what it is?

Mine blew up like a ball for about a week then has shrunk back to normal size.

Doesnt swim quite properly now and has lost its rosyness but other than that seems fine

Sorry to hear bout your loss, he was 1 cool fish !

Oh Kitten, I'm so sorryI hate it when I lose a fish, and you have raised him from such a tiny fry:#(Life just isn't fair, just isn't fair:#(

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle