# Pregnate striped raphael catfish



## gvrayman (May 12, 2006)

I have 2 S.R. catfish in my community tank, and one has a bigger belly than the other. Im thinking it is pregnate since I dont feed them too much. its hard to get a picture because they are always hiding, and when I take away the hiding spots, they buzz and click all over the tank


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## ChilDawg (Apr 30, 2006)

It is not possible for a Striped Raphael to be "pregnant" _per se_. Is it possible that the fish could be gravid? Sure, but it's more likely that you're overfeeding. (http://www.planetcatfish.com/faq/index.php...mostpopular=yes)


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## gvrayman (May 12, 2006)

there's no way I an over feed that cat fish. I have never seen a flake sink to the bottom, and I only put in 2 sinking pellets for the cat fish a day


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## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

Yeah it is impossible, as childawg said, for a raph to be pregnant, as they are egg layers (infact the proper term for livebearers is gravid, too).

You may not think you are over-feeding your raph, but litterally, everything that touches the bottom of the tank will be eaten by that fish, even other fish waste. I would really watch out, as it is very possible to overfeed those types of fishes and have them rupture their stomache, I lost a bull-head that way, and I have heard that it is apparently fairly common in nature to see a 'over-blown' raph cat.


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## DiscusMel (Jul 21, 2004)

Both my spotted raphael cats have huge bellys, i think thats just the way 
there supposed to look







Females usually are plumper than males.


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## gvrayman (May 12, 2006)

Tibs said:


> Yeah it is impossible, as childawg said, for a raph to be pregnant, as they are egg layers (infact the proper term for livebearers is gravid, too).
> 
> You may not think you are over-feeding your raph, but litterally, everything that touches the bottom of the tank will be eaten by that fish, even other fish waste. I would really watch out, as it is very possible to overfeed those types of fishes and have them rupture their stomache, I lost a bull-head that way, and I have heard that it is apparently fairly common in nature to see a 'over-blown' raph cat.


the 2 raphs aren't the only bottom feeders. I have 3 or 4 algae eaters in there too, and they have the tank spotless.


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## gvrayman (May 12, 2006)

I knew fish that most fish lay eggs, I meant pregnate as full of eggs


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## benJii (Feb 17, 2005)

gvrayman said:


> I knew fish that most fish lay eggs, I meant pregnate as full of eggs


Yep, and that is refered to as gravid. As DiscusMel said, they just look plump all the time. You would be very suprised how active they are at night, I have had a brown raph, a striped raph, a spotted raph, and a marlbed raph and they all have been very shy, but as soon as my nightlight came on, they were like little cories and never stopped moving.


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