Eggs or No?

[fishfan1983]

Hi, I'm new to the site and I joined because I have an issue with one of my Gold XRay Tetras. About a month or so ago I noticed what looked to me like one of my Gold XRays was gravid. She has a lot of tiny little round balls in her abdomen. My concern is, everything I have read states that if gravid she should lay within 2 weeks and it has been much longer. Is she egg bound? Is she going to die. Is there anything I can do for her? I'm am adding pictures but it's hard to get a close, clear photo.

 

[dcutl002]

What is the behavior? Is she getting along okay? It is almost like watching during childbirth...not much that you can do other than yell PUSH!

 

[fishfan1983]

She seems to be fine. She eats. She's kind of aggressive but some fish are just jerks. �� I just wanted to make sure that what I'm seeing is eggs and that there's isn't much I can do.

 

[Andy Sager]

Tetras are egg layers ( vs livebearers like Guppies and Swordtails, etc) so they will develop eggs even if they are not ready to start spawning. If there are no males within the school and/or if the water conditions aren't correct for spawning, the females will just hold onto the eggs and prevent them from maturing until they get ready to spawn. As long as the fish is acting "normal", eating regularly and not isolating itself from the rest of the tank, there's nothing wrong. Female egglayers can go their whole lives carrying eggs and never spawning.

Hope this helps.

 

[fishfan1983]

Thank you so much!!! This was the info I was looking for. I looked everywhere and no where specified whether they would just hold eggs until optimal conditions were met! I have been worried she was egg bound and was going to die on me. Now I can stop worrying.

 

[Andy Sager]

Thank you so much!!! This was the info I was looking for. I looked everywhere and no where specified whether they would just hold eggs until optimal conditions were met! I have been worried she was egg bound and was going to die on me. Now I can stop worrying.

Egg binding is not a very common condition if your tank environment is kept clean and healthy and your fish have a good nutritional balance. This is why you want to include more than one food type and rotate your foods at each feeding. Sadly, in my experience with breeding many species of fish, egg bound fish don't have a high success rate of recovery due to the fact that by the time you realize she is eggbound, it's too late. ( A similar situation with the condition Dropsy.) The key to a fast diagnosis is watching their behavior more than their appearance. Any sign of a missed meal or hiding from the other fish is a sign something is wrong. That's when you have to become the Dr ?* and figure out why.