Post Mortem - Need Help Preventing This Again

[Shifty1303]

Hi all,
 
woke up this morning to find one of my female black ruby barbs had passed.
 
she had been a little swollen for a few days but given that she was swimming and eating fine I thought she was just about to lay eggs rather than having bloat or a swim bladder issue.
 
i took a picture of her after I got her out of the tank. can anyone suggest what might have been wrong just from looking at the picture?
 
any and all help appreciated - don't want this to happen again.
 
FYI - all other fish seem perfectly fine.
 
regards,
 
shifty.

 

[HarpyFishLover]

Dropsy. From the photo I see her scales sticking up. I'm not entirely sure what causes it, but I think it might be stress, bad water conditions, etc. Someone may need to correct me.

 

[Blough]

Looks like dropsy to me, too. What are you water perimeters? I don't know if bad water can cause dropsy, but I do know that the cause of most fish problems are bad water.

 

[DoubleDutch]

Looks like Dropsy indeed that can have a bacterial or a viral cause. Almost never contagious. I'd keep the water pristine and feed some vegs (blanched lettuce / spinach) now and then.