).Anyhoo, I've been noticing that Alaska, My C. irrubesco, just doesn't seem to stay plump for long. She is currently a smidge over an inch long from nose to tailbase. I can't give you an exact measurement because I'm very bad at estimating lengths and she does not trust my ruler!
She seems to go from full to empty pretty quickly. For example, she ate an entire pinhead cricket this afternoon at about 2:00 p.m. and became quite pump, including filling out the "front" of her tummy. Now, at 6:00 p.m. she is just barely rounded and looks slightly concave towards the front of her body. This has been going on for several weeks, where she fills up rapidly, then hollows out soon after. I try to feed her to the point of very plump fullness at least once daily. If I leave her to fast for a day, she looks very hollow and concave, and pretty pathetic to boot. I used to be worried that I would cause her to beome obese, but she does not seem to put on weight. If anything, she's a little less plump than when I got her a couple of months ago. She's still a happy, inquisitive, spunky little munchkin who loves her food (if it's the right food, anyway. No formulated diets for this little primadonna
), not acting sick in any way. Do irrubescos normally have fast metabolisms? Alaska is a very active little girl. When she's not doing the hungry puffer dance for my benefit (her tank is next to my computer), she's exploring the tank, testing the plants for edibility, and giving a good hard stare to all her crunched-up snail shells in case they've miraculously refilled with snails since she checked five minutes ago. Should I be concerned about internal parasites at this point? Please let me know if you have experience with this. In the meantime, I'm trying to feed her twice daily, with 3-5 very small snails for breakfast and a frozen selection for supper. Crickets are a coveted treat. I can get them one at a time for free from where I work (Petco), so she'll probably be getting them once weekly.
Thanks for any advice you might have!
