Possibly pregnant or dying glofish

[Inky0629]

We have a 20 gallon tank of 6 glofish, two reds, a pink, purple, blue and yellow. Our blue one became extremely bloated a few weeks ago, after doing some research I came to the conclusion she was most likely pregnant, one red fish became particularly protective of her and would isolate her from the rest of the fish and stay by her side. Over the past 2-3 weeks her belly has grown to the point she can barely swim straight. We also noticed her belly starting to turn red. I had read that when laying eggs they will swim through the tank and drop them, and the males will fertilize them. She normally stays in the foliage and swimming was becoming a lot, but today we found her in some foliage “stuck” and later she’s in a different spot and has wedged herself so nothing can get to her between a plant and the glass (she doesn’t seem stuck and came out for food) she is laying on the rocks on her stomach…. It doesn’t look normal so I don’t know what to do for her. Our purple is now starting to get a belly as well. Is this normal? Will blue die?

 

[GaryE]

There are several species that have been turned into glofish, and all will be different. But none get pregnant.

They can become egg bound, but you describe what sadly seems like an internal infection. Once she's wedging herself into places, she is dying and can't swim. It could be an infection, and infection from a blockage, an injury, too many possibilities. I'm sorry to say that.

Some people will use an epsom salt bath to maybe make a fish unload eggs. It doesn't always work. You would have to go digging online for the mounts to use though. I haven't done that for years.