# Bad Batch Of Reds In Stores Lately?



## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

So recently I've visited most of the aquarium stores and pet shops around the GTA and noticed something different. While I was scanning live stock in BigAls, Dragon aquarium and Aquatic Kingdom like I always do every weekend I noticed their new juvenile red bellies looked a bit odd from the ones I have seen in the past and the ones I currently own. Instead of the usual very colourful and round appearence, they look more squared and light in colourization.

Are these red bellies a result of a bad breeding operation yielding unhealthy and malnurished red bellies? My other hypothesis was that maybe they were wild reds or their parents were but when I asked the stock room manager he sadly said no. He told me they came from breeder and that he wished the store got some wild reds but they havent got any shipments of wild reds in a while. I didnt have my camera on me last weekend but this picture below is what Iam refering to as the squared look. Are these guys sick? Im asking because I was interested in buying one but wasnt sure why it looked like that.


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## Mr. Hannibal (Feb 21, 2003)

My best guess they are just emaciated... they just need to be well fed for a few days


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## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

Mr. Hannibal said:


> My best guess they are just emaciated... they just need to be well fed for a few days


Alright, thanks man. Iwas looking to get another pygo to add to my collection of 11. Thing is I cant seem to safely accimlate any fish into my red tank. Just last week while shopping at BigAls Mississauga I bought some large cardinal tetras to add to my comminity tank, so I put the bag to float in my red bellies tank to warm up because I was still out for a while after I bought the tetras and the water got cold. Not very long after I returned after installing a new heater in my community tank, the red belly shoal already swam up to a bag and I guess they ripped a hole in it because all the tetras were gone and two of my reds were in the bag. Should I take out all my reds when introducing a new red to the tank? They attack and kill any fish or invertabrate one second after it hits the water.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Mr. Hannibal said:


> My best guess they are just emaciated... they just need to be well fed for a few days


Agreed.









Good picture by the way!
Would sure be easier to diagnose and identify if everybody supplied pictures like that!


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## Mr. Hannibal (Feb 21, 2003)

Some people do that (take all the fish out) but i don't... i just rearrange deco (if any) and a partial water change just before adding the new fish... it works always to me when dealing with adult Ps... Keep in mind juvenile Ps occasionally kill each other no matter what (it's just their nature)...


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Acclimate em in a bucket. Add your new fish & immediately get your arm in there & move some decor around or even move a net around a little. Could pull all fish for 15min & introduce all back together but I highly doubt that's needed. Long babies might of come from tank with strong current.I noticed my pool babies were wild looking in appearance(longer)than square tank raised siblings.



Piranha_man said:


> My best guess they are just emaciated... they just need to be well fed for a few days


Agreed.









Good picture by the way!
Would sure be easier to diagnose and identify if everybody supplied pictures like that!








[/quote]
Its a file photo. Its not of the fish he's talking about.


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## Piranha_man (Jan 29, 2005)

Oh.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

That file photo fish looks like a stunted & under fed or diseased young adult not a baby imo. I doubt you could under feed a baby rbp. Unless you have them split into solo tanks. A group of baby rbp are NOT going to go hungry regardless of if keeper feeds them enough or not. They will eat one way or another I guarantee it!


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## Co. Caines (Feb 14, 2011)

Sylar_92 said:


> So recently I've visited most of the aquarium stores and pet shops around the GTA and noticed something different. While I was scanning live stock in BigAls, Dragon aquarium and Aquatic Kingdom like I always do every weekend I noticed their new juvenile red bellies looked a bit odd from the ones I have seen in the past and the ones I currently own. Instead of the usual very colourful and round appearence, they look more squared and light in colourization.
> 
> Are these red bellies a result of a bad breeding operation yielding unhealthy and malnurished red bellies? My other hypothesis was that maybe they were wild reds or their parents were but when I asked the stock room manager he sadly said no. He told me they came from breeder and that he wished the store got some wild reds but they havent got any shipments of wild reds in a while. I didnt have my camera on me last weekend but this picture below is what Iam refering to as the squared look. Are these guys sick? Im asking because I was interested in buying one but wasnt sure why it looked like that.


i agree i was at big als mississauga and dragon yesterday and noticed the same thing. the person i asked about it said he not sure why they look different, but someone in the store who had bought some previously in that state said they seemed fine for him later on. on another note did you see the gummy bear blue horned worms they had at the big als. i bought a few for my Ps and they torn them apart. they were some pretty feeders. but back to the topic at hand, big als scarborough has a lot of different reds of different sizes for about 11.99 each in case you dont want to go with those odd shape ones u seen.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

When I saw the picture my first thought was that fish looks nicer then 99% of the nattereri I see in tanks. Personally...I hate the rounded belly and weak jaw of most tank raised nattereri. The fish in the picture is a little underweight but has a nice sized head for his body, a nice flat belly, and a huge lower jaw.

Oh...and it is also wild caught imo.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Our tank fish are lazy & spoiled compared to a wild caught. No drought or famines & imo keepers feed too much too often. That fish pictured looks like a lean mean killn machine compared to our overweight couch potatoes.


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## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

BRUNER247 said:


> i agree i was at big als mississauga and dragon yesterday and noticed the same thing. the person i asked about it said he not sure why they look different, but someone in the store who had bought some previously in that state said they seemed fine for him later on. on another note did you see the gummy bear blue horned worms they had at the big als. i bought a few for my Ps and they torn them apart. they were some pretty feeders. but back to the topic at hand, big als scarborough has a lot of different reds of different sizes for about 11.99 each in case you dont want to go with those odd shape ones u seen.


Yeah I buy a few of those for my reptiles once in a while, but those new blue bull worms are a finacial drain. Thanks for the tip I'll check out the other BigAls as well.


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## Hogdog (Feb 1, 2010)

Worms?


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## Smoke (Sep 8, 2010)

I thought I saw some reds that shape (but a little longer) from vendors recently... I think it was one of the rarer reds to get...

EDIT... found the pic, doesn't exactly look like the OP pic, but still a bit similar with the angular shape vs the rounded shape:


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## jp80911 (Apr 3, 2008)

how frequent you feed is one thing, how much food they intake per feeding and how much they burn off are other things. its like one person eating healthy 3 times a day and one person eat big mac value 3 times a day and they all have similar metabolism. and a mouthful of pellets probably have more calorie that a mouthful of tilapia.


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## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

jp80911 said:


> Worms?


Dont know why they are called worms, their just a type of moth caterpillar. This is what they look like, I remeber seeing these guys in my back yard. The green tomato varient gets bigger then the blue ones.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

He'll still get round after few months.


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## banshee42096 (Apr 29, 2010)

ive had a couple lfs not feed my juvies and within a couple of weeks the ones i had at home still were 2-3 times larger and great looking but the ones that were underfed never changed body shape when underfed just were tiny.


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## HGI (Oct 27, 2009)

I blame Japan, their nuclear plants the blew up is the cause of all this.


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## Piranha-Freak101 (Dec 8, 2010)

i like reds with concave heads


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## Sylar_92 (Dec 15, 2010)

HGI said:


> I blame Japan, their nuclear plants the blew up is the cause of all this.


LOL, Still waitng to see some japanese piranhas. The only Jap piranhas I've seen so far were the rhoms cohabing together in their zoo. Be pretty hilarious to see a cyclops red belly with a eye in it's forehead, or some crazy hybrid piranhas like the ones in the Piranha 3D movie.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

BRUNER247 said:


> He'll still get round after few months.


I dont agree. I had some very large ternetzi that had the flat stomach and bulldog head.


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

Sylar_92 said:


> Worms?


Dont know why they are called worms, their just a type of moth caterpillar. This is what they look like, I remeber seeing these guys in my back yard. The green tomato varient gets bigger then the blue ones.
[/quote]

That is commonly called horn worms or tomatoe worms.


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## BRUNER247 (Jun 2, 2010)

Grosse Gurke said:


> He'll still get round after few months.


I dont agree. I had some very large ternetzi that had the flat stomach and bulldog head.
[/quote]
But you probably don't feed as much as most keepers do because you like the wild look. Most keepers can't refrain from feeding daily.


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## Grosse Gurke (Jan 3, 2003)

Im sure I dont feed as much as most....but I have also had both round and flat nattereri in the same tank so I think it is more genetic. Not to say that overfed fish dont get round....they do...and they look horrible imo


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