Dead Fishy

[godzuki]

hi peeps

long time no need help

I have a small problem which i would like some help with... yesterday I cheaked my tank and everything was ok, all looked healthy and thriving but this morning one of my glowlight tetra's was dead, I netted it and and before desposing, I checked the fish to see if there was anything obvious wrong, everything looked fine("no" fin damage,spots broken skin) ... except for... it had a very very very swollen belly... I know there is no problems with the "tank" as I still do regular water checks and there all good and stable. could it have been pregnant? are tetras egg layers or live bearers? does anyone have ANY ideas at all???

thank you
godzuki

btw: not sure how you sex tetras hense why its an it...

 

[modernhamlet]

What are your water parameters, godzuki?

 

[consp]

Tetras are eggs layers so it wouldnt have been pregnant. Might've been egg laiden but I'm not sure if tetras get obviously fat when they are.

Could it have been dropsy? In extreme cases of dropsy the scales will pop out and make your fish look like a pine cone. Before that stage the fish will become inflated to an abnormal extent.

If it doesnt seem like it was either egg laiden or dropsy then I have no idea.

As modernhamlet you might want to check your water parameters... Not because it will detrmine why your fish was bloated, but because it may have been a major part in the fishs death. Also, if the fish was diseased bad water quality may have contributed to the problem.

Hope this helps.

 

[ncjharris]

When any living thing dies, all normal chemical reactions internally end. This includes digestive reactions. I'm not a biologist but I believe this includes the absorbiton of gases in the stomach/intestinal system (or fishes equivalent). Inside digestive systems there are multitudes of bacteria too, that feast on what ever the fish eat, in a kind of symbiotic way. When the host dies, the bacteria do too and a by product of this is gas in some form.

When a fish dies, its quite common for it to swell up if there is no where for the gases to disapate. In addition, this could lead to the fish 'spliting open'.

There is a chance your fish died of nothing you could have prevented (esp it you have had no more deaths before or since) and that the swelling was a by product of its unfortunate death.

 

[godzuki]

When any living thing dies, all normal chemical reactions internally end. This includes digestive reactions. I'm not a biologist but I believe this includes the absorbiton of gases in the stomach/intestinal system (or fishes equivalent). Inside digestive systems there are multitudes of bacteria too, that feast on what ever the fish eat, in a kind of symbiotic way. When the host dies, the bacteria do too and a by product of this is gas in some form.

When a fish dies, its quite common for it to swell up if there is no where for the gases to disapate. In addition, this could lead to the fish 'spliting open'.

There is a chance your fish died of nothing you could have prevented (esp it you have had no more deaths before or since) and that the swelling was a by product of its unfortunate death.

hi thanks
thank yo thats does sound more likely, as there was no deaths before and since. thanks for the help

kiss kiss
godzuki

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

You should still test your water quality for ammonia, nitrates and nitrites if a fish died in the tank as well as can you tell us your tank stocking and how many gallons does it hold?
I think what ncjcharris was trying to say is that it doesn't matter what a fish looks like after death, particualy if it is bloated, as fish rot very quickly in tank water(especially small tetras who have no bones) and dead bodys will look bloated or the fins or slime coat will start to fall off after a couple of hours of being dead.

 

[Pidgecbr600rr]

Think it got attacked by other fish maybe?

I had one that was weaker than the others, found it dead after work, it was fine on the morning, it was swimming strangely tho it would flick on its side, but it had been doing that for weeks, no signs of any other problems