Glolite tetra with swollen belly

[platytetrafan]

Hi I just noticed that one of my glolite tetras has a swollen belly both sides look swollen & on the right side there is a white bulging area. I am not good about sexing fish but could that tetra be a female full of eggs? She is acting fine but kind of staying low to the tank. Am posting pics any help is appreciated. Pics taken with cell phone best I could get.

 

[fishorama]

That looks a bit "more" than egg carrying females usually look to me. I would skip feeding for a few days & change lots of water. Maybe add a bit of Epsom salts if that doesn't help. Or feed some veggie based flakes...have you seen it poo?

 

[platytetrafan]

The fish is acting normal in every other way no other issues that pop out at me as far as disease hard to know if the fish pooped or not. Fish is in a 36 gallon community tank. I have been doing 30% wc’s weekly since I also have a pair of stunted discus in there as well & all other fish are fine. I’ve been feeding tetra flakes & granules mostly the discus get fed in feeding cones so they can get their share of food.

 

[platytetrafan]

Ok I took another look at the fish & it’s definitely not bloated from storing eggs. Since 3 days from now I was going to transfer my 2 cherry barbs & 2 cories from QT into other tanks I looked at them & they look great healthy & were quarantined for weeks with no issue I decided to move them out so this tetra could be removed from the 36 g & put back into QT for treatment. He is being acclimated to the QT as I am typing this. I added aquarium salt to the water in the QT in hopes this will be enough to treat the fish. I took a much better look the bloating is symmetrical on both sides as the pics show but I am not sure what this is but on the right side there looks like a bulge with a very small amount of white stringy stuff coming out of it. Thank god the other fish are fine in my 36 g none are showing the symptoms this one is & I pray they don’t. I know this is part of fishkeeping but I hate when they get sick because I suck @ diagnosing them. All my water parameters have been perfect ammonia 0 nitrites 0 ph 6.6 nitrates 5-10. I just did my weekly wc last night. I used to do biweekly but since adding the discus although small as they are I want to keep them & the other fish healthy too so I upped the wc’s to weekly. The only med I have in the house is fungus guard which treats fungus & other bacterial infections but I read that sometimes aquarium salt does the trick. Wish me luck I hope the salt works. Anything other suggestions I can do to help this fish are greatly appreciated. ???

 

[platytetrafan]

Tried my best to save this tetra but to no avail ?fish has gone to fish heaven.

 

[fishorama]

I'm sorry your fish died . No this doesn't look like fish TB to me in my limited experience of it, thank goodness it was just the 1 fish effected. I would still empty & bleach your QT & filter.

This is exactly why we should QT fish, you never know what may be wrong. You deserve lots of kudos for doing QT even if you couldn't save your fish, sad as that is.

 

[platytetrafan]

I'm sorry your fish died . No this doesn't look like fish TB to me in my limited experience of it, thank goodness it was just the 1 fish effected. I would still empty & bleach your QT & filter.

This is exactly why we should QT fish, you never know what may be wrong. You deserve lots of kudos for doing QT even if you couldn't save your fish, sad as that is.

Thank you so much I rely so much on the knowledge & expertise of more experienced fishkeepers here when it comes to detecting disease because am not good at it unless it’s something I can recognize & I am so relieved that this wasn’t TB in your opinion because the very thought of contracting the disease from a fish is very scary!!! After reading about the importance of doing QT prior to introducing new fish to a main tank & seeing the benefits of doing so yes I agree it saves you alot of hassle & I learned that lesson the hard way.My other fish are doing great in the main tank & no signs of disease which is a real relief without the QT I would be screwed. To other fishkeepers getting one will be the best investment you make & will save you money & the life of your fish in the long run! Thanks again I will empty & disinfect the QT & filter cannister with bleach. ???

 

[fishorama]

It took a long time for me to really, truly get the value of QT. But I can't always decide on any fish disease or possible treatment at any 1 time, that's part of the value of AC, we've all had different experiences over the years, good & bad...still learning curve after almost 40 years in our hobby.

I'm very glad your other fish are doing well...& after more than 12 years here at AC you also have a lot of expertise offer to the rest of us, don't be shy to offer up your opinions, that's how we all learn!