Angelfish bloating

Question
I have a 300l tank with 4 angelfish, 3 diamond sharks, 3 silver sharks, 2 plecs, 4 blue and 2 dwarf neon gouramis and 5 tiger barbs.  3 of the angel fish were added to the tank in October and everything appears fine except one of them is developing a round fat belly.  I do a 15% water change every week and the pH, ammonia and nitrite levels are fine.  I am wondering if the fish is constipated and how I can help it.  It is eating and swimming around normally.

Answer
Hi Amanda;

Angelfish bloating can be a bit tricky. Sometimes it's an incurable internal problem or it could be as simple as being a female full of eggs too

The one thing that you suspected already and can be easily treated is constipation. Try feeding thawed frozen brine shrimp. It often helps "get things moving" and angels really like it. Don't feed any other foods while you are trying to improve the one fish. The other fish will love the brine shrimp too and long-term feeding of brine shrimp will help improve the colors of your fish. Your local fish store should have it. Make sure it's the adult type. If you get "baby brine shrimp" by mistake, it's too small for them to eat so it pollutes the tank.

You could try the traditional foods for constipation to help, but Angels may not be too keen on eating them. The things we usually offer are peeled cooked peas, cooked green beans, romaine lettuce, cucumber slices and spinach. It's good to offer a varied diet to all fish anyway though. They are great supplements to the diet.

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins