Help! My fish is eating herself to death!!

[fish_lover]

I have a tail light tetra or something like that. I know its not a neon tetra. My two neon tetras eats flakes but this tetra likes to eat the algae wafers that I put in for my catfish. The behavior of my tetra is weird. She holds the wafer in her mouth and takes it away. She/he doesn't share it with the other fish. Everytime the other fish come near the wafer, it again grabs it in its mouth and takes it elsewhere. My other fish R very docile & dont fight for the wafer.
Now the problem is my tetra is getting a big tummy, due to overeating. I saw a little cut on the buttom of her stomach, & I thought her belly is comming apart, but now I think its a stretch mark!!!
I cant stop feeding wafers, as my others fish would starve & if I feed then I cant stop my tetra from hogging the whole dinner. I fear that she will eat herself to death!!! & I only thought human beings did that!!
What can I do????

 

[discus4everGrl]

trying breaking the wafer into smaller pieces and dropping them in. She can't steal them all can she....

 

[fish_lover]

I tried that, but she hides one part and comes back for the others!!She doesn't eat it right away, but keeps changing the place, my other fish cant find them!

 

[discus4everGrl]

Not sure what kind of cats you have, but I have two cory cats in one of my tanks and I don't feed algea wafers. They are happy getting other foods off the bottom. If your cats are similiar, there is a good chance they are feeding from the flakes. I might even discontinue the wafers if you can. Many flakes, like tetramin crisps have algea in them and thats what my corys also like.

 

[TLH]

My Black Widows like a wafer also,but they're just greedy and will eat everything I feed.
Try to ween her by just feeding flake for a fortnight.

 

[Lotus]

You can also try feeding the wafer after the lights in the tank are out. Catfish tend to be nocturnal, and will still look for food at night, while tetras usually become very still as soon as it's dark.

 

[bubblecandy]

I feed my wafers after lights out because my cichlids tend to do the same thing. Very greedy agressive bad little fishies I have.
'
Hey TLH what type of fish is that in your avatar? Loach? I'm guessing... it's very pretty.

 

[TLH]

Thats my Rainbow Shark.Nice ain't he.

 

[FishGeek]

Yeah, THL you got a good one there!

 

[radamsk1]

I hate those hoggish fish! My Blue Acara would eat himself to death I fear. I decided to put some extra fish in with him, and I know this was a mistake probably. He was about 3.5-4 inches, and was housed with Angelfish, Rams, and some tetras. I decided I wanted a nice school of some Rummynose or Blue Tetras. Well I go the Rummynoses in. Immediately the Acara picked off the runt, sucked him up, toyed with him, bit off his head, then picked him to pieces, as if showing off to the otherfish he's the king of the tank. The next day the Rummynoses were all gone. Well, at another stage there were some Blue Tetras in the tank, he decided he didn't like them. Now at this stage he just sucked up 3 of them whole. Now you'd figure after pigging out on 3 1-1.5 inch tetras he'd be full, Nope! He still continued to be a hog and eat all the bloodworms and flakes like he usually did. Some fish just tend to be hoggish and have voracious appetites and will eat to no end. *SUPERSMIL