iridescent sharks (FW)

[clarkiiboi]

I have searched and I am not finding exactley what I am looking for, so I have turned to my faithful SW friends who may have FW tanks also. Thankfully there is an off topic forum! Problem (if it is one), is my "shark" looks as though it's belly is pregnant--now I looked this up and know it is impossible to breed in a home aquarium (not what I am wanting to do either). So my question is what is going on? The belly, instead of being flat from head to tail, has a definite "curve" to it now. I cant say much more, cause I just dont know--never seen it before. My "shark" is only about 2 1/2" now and I know all about the growth rate and such. By curve I mean the belly decends noticably down and swollen on the sides also. Any one understand what I am talking about?

 

[molamola]

My guess would be that it's either constipated, or has dropsy. If the stomach is expanding at an alarming rate, dropsy is most likely. Some indicators of that would be that the scales are protruding from the skin and curling at the tip. If this is the case, you need to remove him from your tank as soon as possible because you don't want to expose your other fish to it. I don't know tons about irridescent sharks, but if it's constipated, you could try varying the food, changing the temp in the tank etc. I hope this helps