Pregnant, fat or sick

[Nikko]

I've had my barbs for quite a few months now and when I first got them they looked the same. Now one of them has a red nose and red on the top fin while the other one doesn't and is a lot fatter.

Is it pregnant, fat or is something wrong with it? It's been big like this for a long time like 2 months or so. I don't know anything about pregnancy in barbs or any fish for that matter so I thought I'd see if someone here knows.

[luvnature]

I have tiger barbs and cherry barbs and they are big pigs (but it could be preggers)! Its probably just fat! Im sure your feeding it better than the place where you got them from. I have a tiger barb and a cherry barb that looks just like yours, fatness wise. The others are not as fat as they are. They got that way after a few weeks here. Hehe! They are always hungry and act like they are starving, scarfing down anything and everything! They are quick! But if you end up with baby barbs then you know it was preggers. Oooo, suspense!

As for the redness it could be from getting picked on but do keep an eye on it to see if it gets worse. How long has it been red like that? They do tend to pick and nip at each other as well as other tankmates Poor cherry barbs sometimes have their dorsal fins all ragged from getting nipped by the tiger barbs! They are agressive little guys sometimes! Like a little mafia with fins!

[Sharni]

You have a male and female tiger barb there. The male is the one with the distinct red on his fins and nose....the female is full of eggs

So i'd bet they are ready to breed....he will annoy her until she is ready to drop them. They do eat their own eggs and raising any resulting fry is hard work. So just let em be and they'll sort it out, unless you want to try to raise the fry, then you will need to put them in another tank and remove them as soon as the eggs have been dropped

[Angelnstuff]

ive no idea about the fatness, it would be neat if she had lil baby barbs tho
Good picture tho! there really cute can you post pics of your tank?

[Nikko]

Well, I read up on them and I definitly have a male and a female and she's probably holding eggs. But she's been big like this for 2-3 months, does anyone know what happens if she never releases the eggs? I also read something about the male doing a "head stand". Here's the quote from the site.

Quote: You will/should notice them instantly start to swim around each other and the male will “head stand” and spread all his fins right out and display to her, this will excite the female.

I've seen him do this many times already, I always wondered why he pointed downward like that.

Thanx for all the replies....here's a few pics of my tank and one of my favorite fish that I have. His name is wormdude, lol.

[Angelnstuff]

Your tank is beautiful! Love wormdude too!

[luvnature]

BEAUTIFUL tank!
I just love Wormdudes whiskers! He is very cute, and looks like he is flirting,.."look at me darling".. teehee.

[Vanilla_Rat]

I was gonna tell you,that you had a male and female as well...but you know already!

I like Wormdude too.He is cute!
I have a weather loach (dojo) too...but he has no names.He is all alone too,his friends passed away.Unfortunatly I cannot get any cute pics of him,like Wormdude!

[Nikko]

Quote: Originally Posted by Vanilla_Rat I like Wormdude too.He is cute! I have a weather loach (dojo) too...but he has no names.He is all alone too,his friends passed away.Unfortunatly I cannot get any cute pics of him,like Wormdude!

Yeah, he's really hard to take pics of, he's always hiding. He actually decided to come out just as I was taking pics of the other fish so I quickly grabbed a few shots of him.