Purple Dottyback with a big belly question

[doofus117]

Hi all,

I have a question regarding our purple dottyback as it looks... well, unusual. It is in my pico reef tank (6 gallon Fluval Edge) which is only about two months old. It has been in there since the start along with a three-stripe damsel.

Since having it, it has been feeding well and nothing unusual in terms of behaviours. But today, it looked "off." I am not familiar with breeding marine fish (I've done it successfully with freshwater tropicals and cichlids) and it never even crossed my mind to try.

Anyhow, I've attached some pics of before (the better quality shots) and the "after" (the lower quality shots). This change happened overnight. I should also mention that one of my blue hermit crabs has been picked apart and I can elearly see an exoskeleton/carcass in the tank. So it is possible that our dottyback just had a really big meal - I've just never seen that before.

My main fear would be if this large belly was some parasite growing in my tank.

Any thoughts would be much appreciated!

Thanks.

[Algae Beater]

its called sexual maturity, physiological changes can result, but typically in dottyback species territorial aggression occurs towards a variety of animals. shouldn't be an issue at all.

[SeaHorse_Fanatic]

If it just happened all of a sudden, check tomorrow and the next day to see if it goes down. If so, then it was just a big meal. Not sure what size it is so can't say if it is reaching sexual maturity.

[doofus117]

belly went down. no babies in tank. hermit crab still MIA. conclusion is that the dottyback enjoyed a nice meal.