SEA bloated with red stomach

tolstoy21

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I just noticed that my SAE is blown up like a balloon and struggling to breathe.

I quickly relocated it to a separate tank, thinking dropsy. But when I placed it in the sick tank I noticed that itā€™s underside was blood red and that it also has a small red patch on its side. Iā€™m guessing itā€™s hemorrhaging internally and probably not going to make it.

Does anyone with experince in these symptoms and know the underlying condition and can you offer advice? Specifically, should I be concerned for the health of the rest of the community of fish in my tank where I found the sick SAE?

Tank is a planted 125 gallon with, as far as I can tell, entirely normal water parameters from all my readings. Everything I can test for checks out fine so I donā€™t suspect there Is poor water quality to stress the fish.

Only change I made to the tank in the two years Iā€™ve had the SAE, is to turn off the UV last week, which dropped water temp from 79 to 75 over the course of a day. If lack of UV is my problem, I guess the tank is screwed! Turned UV off cause it kept tripping my GFI which results in the tanks shutting down. And there is no stray current in the water as far as I can tell

Due to the size of the tank, Iā€˜m trying to avoid treating the entire thing. (Plus Iā€™ve had some of the Seachem *plex meds wipe out my plants!)

Any input is greatly appreciated.
 
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If it is dropsy, there is little chance of recovery, sorry... :(

We need pictures to be 100% sure though.
 
Fish already dead and gone. Didn't make it 24 hours from the time I noticed it was sick and relocated it.

I think it has been hunkered down in a place in the aquarium I didn't see it for the last week as its condition progressed.

I wasn't hopeful it was going to make it. It looked waaaay beyond anything I've seen in an aquarium fish. But now I'm a tad concerned for the rest of the community at this point. That is, if it had something highly communicable.

Sorry no pictures, but I can say it was BLOATED like a balloon, but without the pine-cone scale look one sees in a lot of dropsy pictures. Overall fish coloration was pale. Looked like it was struggling/panting for breath. Could not stay upright (swim bladder affected?). And the white area of its abdomen/underside was a large reddish/pink patch from about the ribs to anus. To my untrained eye, it looked like it suffered internal bleeding. There was one small red patch/sore on its side, but that was tiny in comparison to the abdomen coloration.

I haven't put new fish in this tank for about 6 months, so whatever it is, it wasn't just introduced. But also never quarantined in the past (yes a mistake) so whatever affected the SAE could have been introduced at any point.
 
I am very sorry to hear about you loss...

If it was bloated but no pine coning, it was most likely internal parasites. (Ex. Worms)

It also could have been a swim bladder disorder, if the fish was having trouble staying upright/afloat.

How long had you had the fish for before it passed?
 

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