Is this pleco sick or pregnant?

I saw this pleco at the store and was wondering - is it sick or just incredibly pregnant? It looks like it will literally burst, or like someone shoved a ping pong ball into its stomach. The eyes are bugging out too. If it's just pregnant I will probably feel silly, but it looks incredibly uncomfortable.

 

At the moment I am breeding bn plecs and mine never bloat that much when they are carrying eggs, I would say that something is wrong there, maybe constipated a bit of fresh cucumber or thawed out pea's might do wonders.

 

I wanted to ask the people working there what was up, but I have found them to be less than knowledgeable in the past.

As a side note - about how big of a tank do you recommend for breeding the bns?

 

Mine I let breed in their normal tanks (one pair in a 200L and another pair in a 300L) if I did a purely for breeding tank I would aI'm at 100-150L but more importantly you need a lot of filtration as baby bn plecs are amazing little waste factories with a pretty high bio load as all they do is eat 24 hrs a day, so lots of filtration and plenty of water changes, plus a good amount of light as this is one time you actually want algae to grow but also something dark for them to hide under like a good chunk of bog wood (bn plecs need the lignin from bog wood as part of their diet)

 

Oh and I will add the bigger the tank the better as dad will get quite territorial as he guards the eggs/fry so you need to have room so the female can have a little distance unless you move her to a separate tank after the spawning,
Once the eggs are laid the dad will stay over them or near them fanning them for about 5days till they hatch, so don't expect him to come out for food,
He will guard the fry for a few more days after they consume the egg sac/yolk and keep them safe till they start to leave the hiding spot then you should start seeing the fry in little groups often camouflaged on the corner seals of the tank

 

Thanks for the pointers I think it would be really cool to get some BNs breeding but I'm definitely not to that point yet.

 

My first batch was a surprise to me, they just started appearing, but now I have two breeding pairs and a couple Lfs's always happy to take the fry for a good store credit

 

Perhaps in the future. I'd love a good store credit

 

On average if I grow them on for a couple months I get £1.50 per plec the next batch I take in will pay for me to get an ro unit, so it's a pretty good thing to be able to do

 

Yeah I'm sure all the sales add up. Very cool.