HankandRuby
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I have a tank with some platties, mollies and swordtails that has been doing fine but one of the platties died unexpectedly last night so now I'm worried about the rest of them. It's a 29 gallon tank with 8 adults (formerly 9) and some young fry. There are maybe a dozen babies, approximately 4 weeks old. None of the fish are showing any symptoms at all but they were also fine yesterday and now one is dead. She was sort of hiding at the bottom of the tank last night when we went to bed but I thought nothing of it as that is her normal sleeping area. She's the only fish that I have ever seen who consistently sleeps in the same spot on the bottom of the tank. It's caused me to panic plenty of times because nobody else sleeps on the bottom of the tank like that but she's done it since she was a tiny baby.
We recently added a few new fish but they are looking well and behaving normally. One other change is that I bought a new brand of food because I have been crushing up the flakes for the babies since they have outgrown the fry powder food and our old food didn't really crush into small enough pieces very easily. The one that died was female but not pregnant. She did have a swollen belly once before and I thought she might be pregnant but she was not and it remedied itself with no negative consequences. Could she have just been constipated or stressed from the new food or tank mates? I feel so bad because this is my 4 year old daughter's tank and the one that died was the one fish that she raised from a baby. Of all the ones to die, this is the one she was most attached to. Her hamster just died the other day and she is really upset so I sort of want to just replace this fish and pretend it didn't happen but I don't want to add fish to a sick tank. The dead fish looks perfectly fine aside from the bloating, no dropsy, ripped fins, fungus, abrasions, parasites, clamped fins, etc. She looks like a model fish with a fat tummy. I tested the water again this morning and the nitrates are slightly elevated but everything else is within the normal range. Nitrites and ammonia are perfect.
So I guess my questions is if I should treat the other fish or just watch them and what do you all think could be the cause of death for the platty? I'm hoping it is just stress and constipation but that sure makes me feel guilty as I caused those things.
Thanks for your help!
We recently added a few new fish but they are looking well and behaving normally. One other change is that I bought a new brand of food because I have been crushing up the flakes for the babies since they have outgrown the fry powder food and our old food didn't really crush into small enough pieces very easily. The one that died was female but not pregnant. She did have a swollen belly once before and I thought she might be pregnant but she was not and it remedied itself with no negative consequences. Could she have just been constipated or stressed from the new food or tank mates? I feel so bad because this is my 4 year old daughter's tank and the one that died was the one fish that she raised from a baby. Of all the ones to die, this is the one she was most attached to. Her hamster just died the other day and she is really upset so I sort of want to just replace this fish and pretend it didn't happen but I don't want to add fish to a sick tank. The dead fish looks perfectly fine aside from the bloating, no dropsy, ripped fins, fungus, abrasions, parasites, clamped fins, etc. She looks like a model fish with a fat tummy. I tested the water again this morning and the nitrates are slightly elevated but everything else is within the normal range. Nitrites and ammonia are perfect.
So I guess my questions is if I should treat the other fish or just watch them and what do you all think could be the cause of death for the platty? I'm hoping it is just stress and constipation but that sure makes me feel guilty as I caused those things.
Thanks for your help!