Out of sorts guppy

[Minxnfella]

Can anyone throw some light on what is wrong with my male guppy. He's been out of sorts for a couple of days, just hanging around in the plants and not flirting with anyone, he's been eating ok and the only thing that seems to have changed in his appearance is his colour has faded a bit.

TOnight when I have looked though he looks pregnant. His stomach is huge! He's hanging around with the others again though now and seems to be a bit happier.

I just put some melafix in and will do that for the next week. I don't want to quarentine him as he gets really stressed out and all of the other fish are ok.

Two things which have happened in the tank since I noticed he was poorly : heater shattered so had to be removed. waiting for new one to arrive. Temperature stays between 20 and 24 and it was 26 before.
He swam up to CO2 bubble counter and got stuck. Stupid fish. 2 of them have done this now and they can't get back out until I move it. So, he may just have hurt himself a little when he did that.

(any ideas on how to stop this happening again would be appreciated. I thought blob of blu tak but apparently not. )

So, any suggestions would be appreciated please.
x

 

[Minxnfella]

Too late. He died last night which was quite a shock.

 

[William]

Sorry to hear of your loss I only read your post just now When heater's shatter there is a chance they can spill mercury, mercury is highly toxic take care yourself and don't let it get into any open wounds, as in the blood stream I think it can affect brain cells - this is why pregnant woman are advised not too eat tuna or shark because it affects their baby (these fish due to pollution and they are top of the food chain have high mercury concentrations.)

Some times guppies can overexert themselves, appear lethargic for a couple of days and then just drop dead and this may have happened to your male however since you say he was huge it would point to some form of internal injury since it happened so rapidly, probably due to him getting stuck and there is nothing a fish keeper can realistically do about this to save the fish Hope the new heater arrives soon