Guppy’s stomach ruptured through his skin, what happened?!

[Avel1896]

Still no opinion from @emeraldking ?

 

[BibsyBobsy]

Monitor your other fish's behavior. There could be some aggression that you aren't aware of that is severe enough to remove scales/tear open his skin.

Stress:

Fish have something called a slime coat that helps them stay safe and it is also a sign of a healthy environment. With a lot of stress, this slime coat can get thinner and thinner and your fish will be more vulnerable to immunity issues that can become severe over time (intestinal worms, ammonia burn, ammonia poisoning, digestive issues, etc).

Decor:
I am sorry to say but artificial plants can have an impact on fin/skin health; especially long finned species.

Food:
What you feed your fish matters. I will always recommend a live food diet but I understand if that is not something you can or wish to do. If your fish cannot digest a food, it will become bloated. Bloating has significant health effects, such as swim bladder disease and breathing problems. If his stomach got too bloated, it could be a reason his skin tore.

Live Plants:
As for your live plants, choosing your plants correctly will help with their survival rates. If you have low-medium light, pick plants that thrive in low-medium light. I use Fluval Planted Aquarium substrate. It helps support strong root growth and healthy leaves.

Questions I have for you:
What do you feed your fish?
What is the size of your tank?
What are your water parameters, using the liquid testing kit?

Again, I am so sorry for your loss...

Thank you for your advice. It is very helpful to me! I feed my fish the usual tropical fish flakes, and then once a week I feed them frozen bloodworms for a treat. Before that though I fed them blood worms every couple of days but I read that too many is bad for them to digest. So now I don’t do that anymore.

My tank size is 50 litres. My water parameters are 0 for Nitrate, 0 for Nitrite, 0 for Ammonia. I don’t know the General hardness for this moment because I don’t have a liquid test for that, but months ago I used the stick tests and the general hardness always used to come up at 180. I use the same source of water still now, so I’m assuming it will still be the same as always.

I did used to have live plants but they didn’t do so well in my tank, they died within about 2 months of me having them. I never fed them with anything, do you think maybe this is why they died? I didn’t use any proper planting substrate either. I think I was not educated enough about it. I thought you just added the plants to the tank and it is all good ! I just kept them in the little plant pot holders they came in, and kind of packed the gravel around them to keep the plants in place.

 

[BibsyBobsy]

Still no opinion from @emeraldking ?

Not yet, it would be interesting to hear his opinion

 

[BibsyBobsy]

@OliveFish05
I just have two of these in the tank.

 

[carligraceee]

Thank you for your advice. It is very helpful to me! I feed my fish the usual tropical fish flakes, and then once a week I feed them frozen bloodworms for a treat. Before that though I fed them blood worms every couple of days but I read that too many is bad for them to digest. So now I don’t do that anymore.

My tank size is 50 litres. My water parameters are 0 for Nitrate, 0 for Nitrite, 0 for Ammonia. I don’t know the General hardness for this moment because I don’t have a liquid test for that, but months ago I used the stick tests and the general hardness always used to come up at 180. I use the same source of water still now, so I’m assuming it will still be the same as always.

I did used to have live plants but they didn’t do so well in my tank, they died within about 2 months of me having them. I never fed them with anything, do you think maybe this is why they died? I didn’t use any proper planting substrate either. I think I was not educated enough about it. I thought you just added the plants to the tank and it is all good ! I just kept them in the little plant pot holders they came in, and kind of packed the gravel around them to keep the plants in place.

Of course! I am always happy to help.

Tropical Fish Flakes tend to have a lot of fillers in it. I would recommend brands like OmegaOne, TopFin Pro Series, and Hikari. Again, I will always recommend live food. Guppies do great with live foods like insect larvae, brine shrimp, bloodworms, and maybe even fruit flies. You can find some good live food here.

13 gallons is good for guppies. Just make sure you keep up your water changes. I recommend 50% weekly for livebearers since they create a lot of waste. But remember, if you have a bigger tank, you have more room for error. It is easier to keep large amounts of water clean.

Yes, I would recommend this substrate. It has created very strong root systems in my plants to the point it is hard to reroot them somewhere else. I got my plants with little to no roots and now their roots are about 2.5 inches long.

You could also use fertilizer but I am always nervous to use fertilizer so I just recommend planted tank substrate.

 

[OliveFish05]

@OliveFish05
I just have two of these in the tank.

That looks like a very nice fake plant, very natural looking. I would be amazed if the guppy hurt himself on that.


If you are wanting live plants, the info @carligraceee gave you is great. Some good plants to start out with would be Java Fern, Anubias, Amazon Sword, Water Sprite, Hornwort, or Anacharis.

 

[emeraldking]

My apologies for the belated reply. Had some other things going on. So, I haven't checked any messages yet.
Well, the fake plants are really not the cause of this problem. But what the exact reason has been, remains a question. But yes, I don't doubt in any way that it's been an internal problem. Especially, because you've been already mentioning that he was bloated to look at in the first place. But I've understood that he's passed already. Sorry to hear.

 

[Pabs4]

I had a similar thing happen to one of my platies. She had a swollen belly that just kept getting bigger. No gravid spot. When she died part of her stomach was exposed through the skin. I decided to do a bit of a necropsy. It turns out she had ingested some of the gravel substrate. I would have never believed it if I hadn’t seen it. I’ll attach a couple of pictures.

 

[carligraceee]

I had a similar thing happen to one of my platies. She had a swollen belly that just kept getting bigger. No gravid spot. When she died part of her stomach was exposed through the skin. I decided to do a bit of a necropsy. It turns out she had ingested some of the gravel substrate. I would have never believed it if I hadn’t seen it. I’ll attach a couple of pictures.

That is haunting. This is a very possible scenario for the OP because livebearers are not picky with what they eat and since they like to pick at the ground for food, ingesting some substrate is very possible. @BibsyBobsy