Fish Exploded

ddoan

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Aug 17, 2003
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I woke this morning to see one of my large danios with an exploded stomach.

What caused this? He was doing fine yesterday.

Anything I should be concerned about?

Don
 
The tank occupants include a Yellow lab, 5 corries, golden chinese algae eater and now 7 Danios. It was doing fine yesterday swimming about, and now the stomach looks like it exploded, intestines hanging out and tissue torn open.
 
It probebly just died and the other fish picked at it causing the stomach to tear open. Are the eyes gone? Usually when the eyes are missing you know it was a fish that was eating it, because thats what they go for first i think.

Could possibly be some sort of parasite?

Or maybe there's an alien in your tank! Eeeeee! :eek:
 
One of my cories "exploded" once...as did a danio. The cories were by themselves at the time, so it wasn't an attack. Also, it didn't appear to be sick and I still have all of the other ones. Its stomach had a big tear (hole-ish) and looked like it exploded from the inside out.


I believe it could have been an intestinal blockage/twist that may have caused severe swelling - which caused the stomach/skin to rupture.
 
I have dried kirll in the tank for the Yellow Lab. I read somewhere that dried food can make a fish explode if not properly soaked. Is this true?
 
Most likely it was an alien. Better check around for some gangly bug-eyed naked dude running around looking like he wants to chomp your ankles off!!

O.k., it wasn't an alien. Aliens only attack cories so Leopardess better watch for them!

It sounds like another fish was chewing on it. Wether it died b4 the fish did this or not is a mystery until you actually see it happening. If it was intestinal blockage, you would see the swelling (unless you didn't look at your fish for a few days?) b4 it died and even then, it wouldn't burst.

As for dried food...I've heard it can cause problems but don't recall exactly what it was. Maybe its the accumulation of dried food that attracts the aliens?;)
 
Same thing happened to my zebra danio. At first, her tummy was big and then show some redness at the end. Over a period of one day she was swimming at the top and as you said, exploded overnight. I was told that zebras are prone to do that as they have indigestion/intestinal problems. Not sure if it's true.
 
I've read that dried food can be a cause of swim bladder disease. I doubt that it's related to this problem. I'd also guess either fish attack or something like dropsy.
 
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