My P. Latipinna male dropped dead

[fishenthusiast]

I suspect he died because of some sort of blockage. His tummy is bloated and it looks like he couldn't poop :no:. I am not very happy right now :(.

At least I still have my female and a bunch of fry.

[Melody]

:hugs: I'm so sorry to hear that. No other symptoms? They're not especially prone to blockages to my knowledge. Did you feed lots of greens? Seems to me that you mentioned doing so before.

Disease and parasites seem to run rampant as the weather warms - dunno why, since our aquarium temps are constant. Maybe outside fish sources carry them more so we introduce them.

Did you ever get the Angels fixed up? Could something have been passed along from there via a net or something?

[CACAdmin]

Sorry to hear about you fish. At least you do have the fry. Does the female appear ok?

[fishenthusiast]

When I mean dropped dead, he really just dropped dead. He was out and swimming about 10 minutes before I looked in and saw him dead. His tummy looked bloated and you could see he was trying to poop. My husband fed a lot of bloodworms earlier in the day and he told me he squirted lots of bloodworms into the java moss. The mollies hide behind there most of the time and he wanted to make sure they had enough to eat.

I actually thought it a little odd the male was swimming about so much as he liked to hide behind the java moss. I also noticed his tummy bloat, and thought to myself, I better keep an eye on that. The next time I looked at the tank he was dead.

I have lost a couple of the angels, but the ones that are left appear to be healthy. I don't share nets between tanks as the net I use on the 55G is very large and I use a smaller net in my livebearer tank.

I do use the python on all the tanks, however, since the 55G was ill I was running extremely hot water through it for a couple minutes after using it on the 55G. The water comes out of my tap really really really hot, at least I can't touch it. I also cleaned the 55G last and made sure to refill all the other tanks first. The hose then had a chance to completely dry for a week before being used again. I haven't used the python on the livebearer tanks lately because hubby lovingly modified the bottom part and now I am worried about sucking up fry. So I have been using my hand held vacuum and a bucket instead.

No one else in the tank appears ill, of course the female molly is hiding, so I can't see her. I really hope they aren't getting some mysterious illness :(

[Melody]

Very strange indeed. I suppose he could have eaten himself into oblivion, especially since they love the bloodworms and they are constipating. Shame that, but at least if its that you won't be dealing with a disease. It will give your baby males a chance to grow up in peace anyway.

[fishenthusiast]

Very strange indeed. I suppose he could have eaten himself into oblivion, especially since they love the bloodworms and they are constipating. Shame that, but at least if its that you won't be dealing with a disease. It will give your baby males a chance to grow up in peace anyway.

I hope there isn't disease. I had another bloodwom casualty yesterday too. I have very small copper rasboras in a tank with a few bigger fish, the biggest being my male gourami. We think that the rasbora had a hold of a blood worm and was having troubles swallowing it. Along came a bigger fish and SNAP, ate the bloodworm and the head of the rasbora. Not a fun thing to come home to.

I am having bad luck with fish dying from accidents/injuries lately, I have no idea why.

[Melody]

You should have asked me. You are having bad luck because. Just because. Happens to all of us. Just because. Yes, it sux.:mad:

Any Angels with the Rasbora? They like to munch smaller fish.

I can't feed Bloodworms anymore because of allergies, but I just got some freeze-dried Earth Worms. You may have heard about that due to the loud laughter of the men in the room over me buying worms that I can dig up....lol. They're supposed to be especially good for Livebearers so I'll let you know how it goes. Sad part is I used to bait a hook no prob in my younger years. I'm getting old and girly....lol.

I'm sorry that you're having a rough time, I know how frustrating it can be. Consider yourself hugged.

[fishenthusiast]

No, no angels in with my smaller fish. I learned that lesson the hard way. I had glowlight tetras in with my "big daddy". They became a midnight snack for a few nights before I clued in and moved them :Blush:. I think my rasbora's death was accidental. None of the fish they are in with attack smaller fish. it is also possible the poor rasbora choked on the bloodworm and then another fish started snacking. The tank that has the rasbora's is my dither tank, I have neons, gold tetras, copper and harlequin rasboras, one galaxy rasbora (I want more so I can start a breeding program), cories, khuli loaches, a gourami and an adf. I am sure I forgot some inhabitants, it is hubby's tank.

Today is water change day, and I am going to shuffle a bunch of plants and maybe some fish in between tanks so I will inspect all my fishies and check out their health. I also lost both my female koi swords.One disappeared, the other looked poorly for a few days then died. They were pet store fish though, I am not sure how hardy they were to begin with. Both dropped fry before they died, but I wasn't able to catch them :no:. I really wanted to raise some babies, so I am going to have to get some more.

[Melody]

Watch for those nasty red worms - they appear to be going around. :wideeyed:

[Edgezilla]

Personally, I would not feed any type of larger worms (bloodworm, blackworm, tubifex, etc) as a regular diet for smaller fish. I read that they are supposely a good way to caused constipation. I guess they are just too long and there is only so much intestine in a fish. Even with a 3.5" zebra pleco, I would never feed bloodworm more than once every couple days because the high risk of constipation. I haven't used bloodworms in a year now and never regret stopping. Epsom salt is supposely a laxative for fish. I don't have the dosing amount per gallon.

[CACAdmin]

I do feed bloodworms to my platys occasionally (they love them) but I follow up by with peas at the next feeding to eliminate any constipation problems which might arise. (They love peas too!)

[Melody]

Since it does come up quite often, I posted an article (http://www.canadianaquariumconnection.com/forum/showthread.php?t=854) in the Nutrition & Article section for future reference.:smile: I decided the article as a whole was more nutrition related so I opted for that rather than the disease section.

[fishenthusiast]

I usually don't feed bloodworms. In fact I didn't even have bloodworms for a couple months. The smaller fish usually get freshly hatched bbs, frozen bbs, flake, peas, bottom bits on occasion, algae wafers and on occasion, other vegetables. I have asked hubby to refrain from feeding bloodworms to my smaller livebearers as a precaution.