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I've had the same school of Lemon Tetras for almost 4 years but this has happened three times now and it seems to happen around this time of year.

One of them starts looking bloated and you can see reddish brown and white looking material inside. A hole develops on the lower side of the belly (in one case it was near the business end) and you can see something poking out.

On three separate occasions, I removed the afflicted fish to a separate tank where this material just falls on out and then the hole heals and fish is fine. I don't have a microscope but when I examined this material with a magnifying glass, there isn't anything that appears to be moving or "alive" rather.

Neither time did I medicate because I really have no idea what this is. There are also no symptoms to note about the fish when this has happened and no other fish in the school are affected. So the fish goes back and all is fine, until about a year later.

If anyone has any ideas of what this is or what I should do, please advise.

Tank details in signature and water parameters below.
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: 10
pH: 6.8
Temp: 82

55gal Freshwater Tropical, Emperor 500 Biowheel
8 Lemon Tetras,4 Dwarf Neon Rainbows,1 Blue Spot Gourami, 3 Clown Loaches, 1 Lemon Spotted Pleco

Cant offer any advice as it is a bit weird, not an anchor worm right?
Main reason im posting is id like to hear how to ounce your username please!

Not anchor worms, never seen anything hanging from them. Just the internal appearance of redness, swollen belly that eventually erupts. Crazy sounding I know.

The name is ginsings. The cutesy stuff I did to it didn't come across intelligibly and doesn't seem to be a way to change it unless I upgrade. Sorry!

55gal Freshwater Tropical, Emperor 500 Biowheel
8 Lemon Tetras,4 Dwarf Neon Rainbows,1 Blue Spot Gourami, 3 Clown Loaches, 1 Lemon Spotted Pleco

I've not had any experience dealing with this personally so this is just a stab in the dark, but might it be possible that the fish is simply producing eggs for spawning? The fact that it happens around the same time every year and that the affected fish seems to not be bothered by the happening almost makes it seem like a normal occurance. Some Tetras can get really fat with eggs, and if there has been no fertilization then you wouldn't see anything moving around. It could be that the fish is actually becoming eggbound, but then the problem is resolving itself before it becomes a health risk...

From your observations I doubt there is anything you really need to do at this point.

Littlecatjoe,

Thank you so much for your reply. That thought never even occurred to me! Eggbound? That really could be it.

Before I realized the swelling belly, I noticed a "pair" hanging out together in the corner apart from the school. Well, they really don't "school" with nothing to harass them but each other. Thinking one of them sick, I quarantined. Do you think the stress of separating a possible mating pair could cause a fish to get eggbound?


I thought I had all males so I haven't exactly been studying what their mating behavior would look like. Besides, sexing these is near impossible. There do appear to be a few with shorter/squatter bodies, and these are the ones that seem to have this issue. Other than that, they all have absolutely identical color and fins.

55gal Freshwater Tropical, Emperor 500 Biowheel
8 Lemon Tetras,4 Dwarf Neon Rainbows,1 Blue Spot Gourami, 3 Clown Loaches, 1 Lemon Spotted Pleco