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Hi all - I have a large (90g) community tank with many tetras (8 cardinal, 5 silvertip, 5 phantom, 6 black neon and 6 "purple" neon), a blue wood shrimp, a BN pleco and a marbled pleco.

I just added the black neons the other day and immediately after their first feeding I noticed one looked a little too big, but it was acting normal so I left it alone.

Everyone was going along just fine, but tonight that fish was bloated again and not swimming. The thing is, when it tried to swim it had no problems but it just was not trying to swim so it was getting carried around by the current most of the time. I figured this fish was as good as gone so I nabbed in in a breeder net and it died about 5 minutes later.

This pretty much looks like a swim bladder thing so far to me, but then I put it in a baggie to go back to the LFS and I noticed that it's got little yellowish dots coming out its vent. I had fed BBS earlier tonight, but these are bigger than BBS, so I am wondering could they be eggs? I know in the reptile world, animals can get eggbound and die, but can fish? What do you guys think.

Oh and my tank params:
90 gal planted community tank
Ammonia: 0
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: Less than 10 PPM
pH: 7.2
Temp: 78
Filter: Cascade 1000
Last WC: 20% yesterday, 20% weekly
Additives: Iron, Potassium, Trace minerals
Plants: Crypts, anubias, red something or others

Great question! I would lean toward thinking that they are eggs. A parasite would generally be elongated or wormlike as opposed to ovoid. Grab one and place it under a microscope if you have one available. Do you have a picture?

__________
"To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism; to steal from many is research."
researched from Steven Wright

eggbinding is not an uncommon cause of death in fish. I'd think that usually the eggs would be a creamy white, but i'm unfamiliar with the species breeding habits, and it had beed dead a while, so it could be perfectly normal

For animals, the entire universe has been neatly divided into things to (a) mate with, (b) eat, (c) run away from, and (d) rocks. - Terry Pratchett

The microscope is packed away somewhere but I think I'll keep a few of the things to examine later once I unpack it.

I couldn't get a very good pic. Here's what I got.

http://www.fatburrito.com/fish.jpg

Last edited by coffeeman at 20-Dec-2005 00:48