Wondering if someone can shine some light on why i lost 4 swords overnight, they were fine and normal shape at lights out (7pm) last night but bloated and very dead this morning, ammonia & nitrite are 0 nitrate 25, did a 30ltr water change Wednesday night (1200x450x450mm 190ltr tank), filtered with a 2213 cannister and 2010 internal Eheims that haven't been touched for a month and still have good flow, the containers i used for the water change are fish only and never had anything but fresh water in them. A couple of Clown Loaches, 2 x Zodiac Loaches, 6 x GBA, about a dozen Guppies and about 20 more swords are all fine showing no symptoms, also have a nutrafin co2 setup going that has been going for about 6 weeks.

2 of the ones in the bottom photo seem to have actually ruptured through the back of the stomach

Thanks in advance : -)>

Here's a couple of pics.....

Sorry if the pics are to large but wanted them easily viewable.

So sorry Snowman

Trying to see if I can find anything on the net...but so far everything I've found about bloated bellies relates either to "egg binding" or dropsy...I'll keep looking though!

could it be egg binding or some similar birthing related problem as the only ones effected are females.

But 4 at once? No idea of the cause. Did you feed anything different?

In the top pic you can see the most orange fish is female with fry inside, one of the others was just starting to turn male with about a 7mm sword just starting.

Food wise it is the same as always, JBL Gala, i bought a large container and have been feeding out of this for a couple of months now, they get one feed of rinsed bloodworms every Sunday but looks like these four will miss out, the tanks are in the garage and we had a kids party here yesterday, i made sure there were no hands in the water or tapping on the tanks but could they have been stressed from having quite a few different people moving around (although this wouldn't explain the bloating).

Thanks Caper but after loosing so many guppies a while back you seem to get more used to it, still frustrating though especially not knowing why and will it happen to any others.

Your little boy's birthday yesterday...ah...Friday...HAPPY BIRTHDAY

but could they have been stressed from having quite a few different people moving around

I know that stress can cause alot of problems but you wouldn't think bloating would be a result, especially like Caryl said 4 at once!

You said that a couple ruptured? Ah...did you see anything coming out?

I couldn't see anything coming out, just a split a couple of mm across.

Yes it was Marcus's 1st birthday Friday, went awesome except for one brat that tore his inflatable bouncy castle ($70 at K-Mart) before he had a chance to play in it :evil:

Thanks Caper : -)>

hi there,

sorry to hear about loss. sometimes bloating is caused by the type of food,waterchemistry,you said that a couple of them looked like they had ruptured towards their butts,which is an indication of food. you also said you not long started up the CO2,nutifin is the yeast one aye!!!

can be unstable,are you sure the ph didn't plumit overnight.

i'm not sure what the reason for your loss,but check and see what your CO2 is doing at night.a kidney disorder can make them swell like that too.

but don't know about 4 at once!!!! STRANGE

it is awefully frustrating when you cann't figure something out

good luck.

shelley

The food is JBL Gala which i use in 2 other tanks with no problems, have been using this container of food for about 2 mths now.

The co2 has been in for 6 weeks and has been good and still seems good.

Think maybe the "Twilight Zone" has paid me a visit with some mystery deaths. :roll: