I'm not to sure where to post this so if it's in the wrong place please forgive me ..Bella came home with me very full of eggs..she was extremely fat near her rump.. Last night Bella started to bottom sit and continued this morning..I check water parms A-OK...Shes recovered from ICH... So, I decided to hand-spawn her.. 100,s of eggs later shes acting normal again... should I continue to hand-spawn for a few days? What should I do??..

EDIT... Oh, and she's eating again..I just dropped Gel food in and she's going to town..

I hope my Mariko won't need some help. So far, she's still really, really full of eggs. I thought with Oscar in her tank, she would have dropped them by now. I'll keep an eye out though. She is so fat! But she's definately not showing any signs of distress. She gets around the tank quickly.

Is bottom sitting a possible egg impaction sign? I wonder if there's anything I can do to help her along. My tank temp has been fluctuating with the weather, so hoping that helps.

Yes, bottom sitting and not eating all correlate with egg impaction.. I hope Mariko feels better to!..Jasmine I think is filling but she's got 4males with her she will be fine Poor Bella though still in QT..

edit.. my tanks have also been fluctuating with the weather.. I try to keep my house even with the tanks.. but running the heat one day and AC next is hard on our bill

If you are going to handspawn, be VERY VERY VERY careful. More fish have been killed by too rough a handspawning technique than have been with egg impaction. If she does not release some eggs when you pick her up, she is not ready. If she does not respond to a gentle stroke along her belly - she is NOT ready.

Even experts regularly "sacrifice" the female for a good clutch of eggs.....

Do not make your fish part of the statistics......

Really?? That's horrible!

But I'm glad I read this thread, I'll know to be patient and careful if this ever comes up. Internal injury is not something I want to cause.

I've never even heard of handspawing before. How do you do this???

I'm sure we have it posted somewhere in the forums already. I think it's really a last resort though, if your female is very ill. Mine is still acting completely normal, so I'm sure mother nature will take over eventually.

I'm glad she is better, Jules!!! Can we see some more pics of her????

She was definitely ready.. She did release tons of eggs from handling her..I very gently rubbed her belly and eggs came pouring out the eggs were yellow.. She's on a antibiotic and is very well tonight she's eating finally and not bottom sitting..

aww, how do you hand spawn? do you just.........squeeze it out?

No you do not. First you have to be 100% sure your fish is a) female and b) egg impacted.

As Daryl said it can be very dangerous. The fishes kidney is just beneath the skin in the same area -it's a very delicate organ and can very easily rupture. Kidney rupture is always fatal.

With Bella, I took her in my hands gently.. rubbed her belly down VERY slowly and eggs came pouring out..I didn't push into her skin..Just picking her up caused eggs to pour out..Ive hand-spawned other females with luck.. I only did this because of her condition..She was miserable as of today still no bottom sitting..She's doing fine

Jewels - Hello.
Just wanted to say that I'm not sure dosing meds is a good idea. If she's dropped her eggs there is no longer any threat of infection. Every time you medicate, the antibiotics loose their punch for when they're really needed. In addition, antibiotics strip the fish not only of any harmful bacteria but all the good ones as well. This is very harsh on their system. If they're sick it's the price you pay, but if thy're not you actually reduce their immunity. Are you doing food or bath?

As a general warning to any inexperienced members reading this topic- Hand Spawning is dangerous and should not be tried unless you really know what you're doing.

hmm so if you know they're female and they've got eggs...

as long as they are eating and pretty much up to their daily activities of scavenging the tank all is well? no need to worry, right?

only when their behavior becomes abnormal should i worry?

their poo is regular "i've been fed plenty" poo... in case that makes any difference. it's not the reabsorbed egg poo.

One of my fish is constantly reabsorbing eggs. She will float at the surface for about 4 consecutive days. I check the water/change the water she goes back to that spot. On about day 5 she will release a poop that looks like this:

You can tell they are eggs because the bubbles are jellified meaning they cannot bend =the zigzag shape of the poop

After this poo she swims back down and joins in the usual scavenging and fishfun. She is not in breeding mode (all conditions for that are not met) so the eggs are not released but reabsorbed.

Another fish I had, would bottom sit when she was full of eggs. Her abdomen was larger on one side and she had no appetite. that lasted almost a week but she did eventually release eggs and there was no male present. If there is a male present they get nudged and will release sooner.

I think it was Zelanie had a new fish shipped that bottom sat for at least a week and then suddenly released masses of eggs. No males or any other fish present. It's nothing to worry about unless the fish tips over on one side and doesn't eat for a week or so and is gasping, breathing heavily (its an extra load on the heart).

Thanks for your post Trinket. Good stuff!

You're welcome . Hope something makes sense