Hi Barbara Mine certainly did look plump on occasions when I had them before (the new ones are still small). As well as just plumpness from eggs, constipation and bacterial infections, there are some parasites / nematode worms can cause a distended stomach. These can get in the tank with fish ...

Thanks for all the replies. The fish did look a bit emaciated for a while, but thankfully the syn. petricola are now taking food greedily :) Maybe it was just an acclimatisation thing. They're now in the planted 200 litre community tank and have been in there for a few weeks. They don't seem to like ...

Hi Yes, I'm southern based in the UK. The water is very hard (20 degrees gh) and alkaline (haven't done a precise reading but 8. something), so ideally suited for the petricola or most cichlids and not great for Hatchets, although many do successfully keep hatchets in these water conditions. The ...

Well they've been in the tank 9 days and still show no signs of interest in any food I put in the tank. Not sure why. But they do seem very active still and there are no signs of stress, so I presume they must be browsing the small amount of algae on the rock and plants. In the mean time, I'm ...

Thanks for all the replies. I didn't realise it could take a week for them to feed normally. Well I'm slightly less worried now. From my attempts last night, it looks like they don't get interested in food unless the lights are really low (e.g, the room is almost pitch black). I tried Daphnia, a ...

They were put in the tank on Saturday morning, so have been there 4.5 days I guess. There are no other fish in the tank.

Hi I've just bought 4 juvenile petricola about 1.5 inches long, which I have in a 28 litre tank newly set up with some seeded filter media in a dimly lit tank (just daylight) and a couple of cabomba plants, rocks etc. They're great little fish and spend their whole time exploring the tank and ...