# Swollen anal hole



## malibu86 (May 27, 2013)

Fist forgive me if the title is not the correct terminology.

I have a Cobalt blue Malawi and over the last ween I have noticed it has a swelling around the anus. The colour is normal but I m not sure if this indicates an issue I need to act on or, is this a female that is soon to release eggs?

I am hoping the 2nd option, as when I looked in the tank today I could see that a lot of coral sand had be dug out to form what looks like a laying nest.

Any thoughts??


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## lilscoots (Mar 13, 2012)

With my haps the egg tube typically drops shortly (sometimes a day) before laying...


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## master chi (Jan 3, 2010)

It does sound like a female who is ready to lay some eggs... Hopefully she has some cobalt males to mate with


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## malibu86 (May 27, 2013)

The swelling looks to have reduced over night. I have only had the fish for about 3 weeks and I am not sure that the other cobalt is mature enough to mate and not sure if he is a a he! How can I tell if the female is now holding? There seems to be a lot of friendly chasing going on, maybe she is trying to get the egg spot of the male?
I was going to get more fish today as the 4 I have we're doing well. Should I scrap that idea for the moment?


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## master chi (Jan 3, 2010)

there will be what looks like swelling in the throat of a female who is holding,that's because her mouth is full of eggs.females will hold unfertilized eggs,but I don't think she will hold them for very long. If there is a male ready to breed,it will probably happen. Then she will hold around 20 plus days,and it will become more apparent once the eggs become little baby fish swimming in her mouth.

Without knowing the dimensions of your tank,and without knowing what your stocklist is, we won't be able to give you proper advice on adding more fish. Tell us what size tank you have,what the measurements of the tank are,and what fish you currently have housed in the tank. Then it will be much easier to give accurate advice.


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## malibu86 (May 27, 2013)

Thanks all..
I currently have a 50gal tank which is 4ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft. For filtration I have an external Fluval 306 and and internal filter which turns over 800 lph. As at last night, ammonia and nitrites were 0, nitrates between 5 and 10 ppm and ph 8.1.
Stock wise I only have 2 cobalt blues and 2 yellow zebras due to having to return 1 of each species after 2 weeks of not eating.
I would like to get another 3 of each species to avoid any fish being chased to exhaustion.

Sorry for the lengthy post!!!


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## malibu86 (May 27, 2013)

Bump...


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## b3w4r3 (Dec 14, 2012)

If you are asking about adding the fish you stated I would say yes. Consider adding another species also as that tank size is usually recommended to stock 3 species, 1m 3 to 4f of each.

As far as the swelling I wouldn't worry about it if it has gone down and the fish eats and looks healthy.


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## malibu86 (May 27, 2013)

Many thanks all. The fish is eating well and swelling has gone. I now have another issue with brown Algae but I ll start a new threads for that!

Thanks Again!


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## Ponera (Mar 30, 2012)

this is one of my least favorite things to deal with, good luck


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