Guppy And Platy Very Swollen!

[matt_bex]

Hi

Im very worried about a guppy and a platy that I have. The platy has been quite bloated for a few weeks now and tonight I noticed that he/she is floating near the surface and is the most bloated ive seen. Also one of my guppies is also showing exactly the same signs.

Ive recently started feeding freeze dried blood worms and mistakenly have not been soaking them first. Could this be bloating the fish? All the fish have been eating the worms but are not suffering the same.

Water levels are all fine. I was thinking the platy was pregnant but now the guppy is showing the same symptoms im worried its my stupid mistake thats caused it. I am not going to feed for a couple of days and I just hope they last that long as they're looking quite bad.

Please help im very concerned and worried ill loose them.

 

[Lillefishy]

It could be the freeze dried food causing the bloated look, you should always soak it before feeding, guppies & platys are greedy fish & possibly just gorged themselves
I'd starve them for a day or two to see if they slim down then feed them a deshelled pea to help with any digestion or constipation problems

 

[BerryAttack]

you need to mix up the diet; sounds like you are over feeding. do a 75% water change with treated tap water (have you read up on cycling a tank, if not go read up on it and start doing a fishless cycle.. and get your stats of your water done)
then do not feed for 5 days, it wont harm or starve the fish so don't worry.
 
ps, when someone says their water levels are fine (meaning stats) we know you didn't test your water lol. just get your water tested, it should be free at any pet store.

 

[matt_bex]

Thank you for your replies. May be a stupid question but does the pea have to be cooked? Also I put in 2 real plants today and am wondering if this has had an effect?

Levels are:
Ammonia = 0
Nitrites = 0
Nitrates = 5
PH= 7.6

I do normally feed varied food. Small pellets and blood worm (which im going to stop using as I think this may be the cause.

Not sure what you meant by carry out a fishless cycle? This is a mature tank and has been running for 5 months or so with no issues.

 

[bluesword23516]

Could you post some pictures? This would also help, and if the only thing you are feeding them is blood worms definitely get a flake to mix up their diet.

 

[matt_bex]

Hi. Ive been trying to upload a picture but cant get it small enough, any ideas how this can be done please.

Now an update. Woke up this morning and the platy is looking a lot better. I've not fed today and will prob leave tomorrow too. The guppy however has passed away. I feel so bloody awful. He looked a bit better this morning but still very bloated. Had another look an hour later and couldn't find him, looked under the log and there he was. Now ive just got to keep a close eye on the platy but it's looking positive, touch wood.

 

[the_lock_man]

Hi. Ive been trying to upload a picture but cant get it small enough, any ideas how this can be done please.

 

 
There are various online tools to reduce file sizes of jpegs. I use a downloaded graphic manipulation package called GIMP2, when saving as a jpeg, reduce the quality down to 40-50%.

 

[matt_bex]

Ok so ive been reading up and I now believe this was dropsy. Mainly due to the scales sticking out. The Platy is much more energetic now and hasnt got spikey scales so im hoping he'll be ok.