Heya. I think this is in the right place...

Anyway, I woke up thismorning and had a look at my community tank. One of my Clown Loaches had died. I thought he was sick because he spent a lot of the time sulking on the bottom and lying on his side. Unfortunately, I don't have a hospital tank at the moment to of kept him in.

I've noticed some unusal behaviour changes in my little Convict. He's my favourite fish of the bunch and is so small and cute, I don't want to lose him.

When I got him, he stuck right cloes to my Albino Cory and went after any fish that came near (not nipping, just chasing). He was a very lively fish. Lately though, he spends A LOT of his time hiding in the rocks and sitting at the bottom of the tank by himself.

He's only about the size of 10c or 20c piece. The thing I noticed today is that he's starting to get rather fat. The whole stomach area seems to be expanding and it doesn't look in proportion to his body (I'll get some pics if I can get my camera to work right). I don't feed them to much so I doubt it's because he's being over feed.

Should I be worried about him or am I just overconcerned?

Edit: His black stripes have also been really dark over the last week or so. Darker than usual. He used to only get dark when he was protecting my Cory. He also has his top fin (dorsal?) erect all the time. He used to only do that when he felt threatened.

First, check your water, Ph, nitrate, nitrite, amonia.
Are you sure the clown was dead? They are known for playing dead.

You might want to get some frozen peas or babyfood peas and feed them to the con in case he's constipated. If you go with frozen peas you will need to thaw them in hot water and "peel" them, basicly crush them to take the skin off and make them bite sized.

As a general rule if I have a fish die on me I do a partial water change after I check the paramaters.

Please do post a pic of the con so that our cichlid experts can help try to figure out what's going on.

What do you feed him?

God damnit!!! :sook:





You can see the bulge in those shots. Unfortunately he didn't make it.

@dtroup: I'm sure the clown was dead. His eyes had that eerie white color...

@glaive: I've been feeding the rest of the fish flakes, brine shrimp, pellet food. The convict was occasionally getting peas (like dtroup said) when he could beat the others to it. Not too many though. He was also getting some lettuce and worms. He loved the lettuce when I put the worms in it for him.

:rip: Sorry for your losses.

Did you blanch the lettuce?

Yeah I did.

I've done a water change now and given then all a good feed. The rest of the fish seem fine so hopefully it was just coincedence (sp?) that they both died today.

OK, I'm out of ideas as to cause. Maybe someone elce can think of somthing.
Good luck with the rest of your fish. :hug:

That bulge is quite un-natural...I think it's fairly safe to assume that it is directly linked to the fishes death...

A number of things can cause distension like that...
I think it's safe to rule out a tumor, as it seems that it developed too quickly to be cell growth...
It could also be caused by something impacting the fishes GI tract. A peice of plastic, a rubber band, a piece of substrate or a rock,etc could have caused the blockage that resulted in the fishes death.
Internal parasites could also be to blame.
If you happen to have preserved the body (like in the frigde) you might want to consider a disection to see what that lump contained. If the distension was due to parasites, depending on the kind, they may have been visible to the naked eye...A wet mount slide at 40X can also reveal quite a bit....If you see things "swimming" and moving on the slide, then most likely your culprit would be parasitic in nature...

Lastly...It may have been predestined....Convicts are quite prolific breeders, and unfortunately many lines are very inbred...it is quite possible that some manner of genetic defect caused an organ, or other internal part to begin swelling causing the fish's death....

@Seedy: thanks for the information. Unfortunately I believe it may be parasitic because one of my gourami's now has a big buldge in the exact same area. He spends a lot of time sitting on the plants I have at the top of the tank with his mouth almost constantly out of the water.

I think I'm going to lose him and what annoys me is that this came on so suddenly. One day they're all fine the next my clown looks sick, the next day my clown dies and my convict has a noticable buldge, he then dies and now today i noticed my gourami has a nice large buldge around his stomach.

I have no idea what to do about this. I don't have the gear to dissect the fish yet and I haven't got any damn money to just buy any old medicine.

Does anyone else have any more specific information as to what this may be?

Edit: Just a had another look and my gourami is swimming almost vertical now (well, not really swimming, more just sitting there really). Maybe it's a swim bladder infection...

I noticed that before the convict died, he was having trouble staying upright and the clown loach spent a lot of time on his side. That, and the buldge, are the only things I can think of that are in common.

If you think it's internal parasites, go with some Pepso Food from Jungle.