Okay Tank parameters:

Ph: 6.8
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: ?
Gh: ?
KH: ?
Tank Size: 50 gallons
Running time: 3 months
Filter: Whisper/60
Water changes: 20% once a week
How many fish: 2 are 3 1/2" 1 is 6 1/2"
Additives or conditioners? No conditioner and I add a little ph7
medications: just put Maracyn today (5 tablets)
New fish: None
Food:Kijaro pellets
Behavior: Listless, sits on bottom, not eating, and gulps
Outward appearance: body seems a little swollen

"Popeye" is my baby, she is 6 years old and has had a rough summer. She has bred all summer long and judging from her poop, I thought she was trying to absorb some eggs. But now I am worried because she is just laying there and isn't tempted by any of her favorite treats. The other two fish look fine and act fine. I can't seem to find any information about what is wrong with her. I did notice that one of her front fins has a tear in the middle of it, but this weekend the male was a little frisky and I really thought she'd lay another batch of eggs. But she did not. Her belly seems a little swollen, but it is hard for me to tell with her just lying on the bottom of the tank.

If anyone can help I'd be grateful.

Goldcrazy

Okay Tank parameters:

Ph: 6.8
Ammonia: 0.25
Nitrates: 0
Nitrites: ?
Gh: ?
KH: ?
Tank Size: 50 gallons
Running time: 3 months
Filter: Whisper/60
Water changes: 20% once a week
How many fish: 2 are 3 1/2" 1 is 6 1/2"
Additives or conditioners? No conditioner and I add a little ph7
medications: just put Maracyn today (5 tablets)
New fish: None
Food:Kijaro pellets
Behavior: Listless, sits on bottom, not eating, and gulps
Outward appearance: body seems a little swollen

"Popeye" is my baby, she is 6 years old and has had a rough summer. She has bred all summer long and judging from her poop, I thought she was trying to absorb some eggs. But now I am worried because she is just laying there and isn't tempted by any of her favorite treats. The other two fish look fine and act fine. I can't seem to find any information about what is wrong with her. I did notice that one of her front fins has a tear in the middle of it, but this weekend the male was a little frisky and I really thought she'd lay another batch of eggs. But she did not. Her belly seems a little swollen, but it is hard for me to tell with her just lying on the bottom of the tank.

If anyone can help I'd be grateful.

Goldcrazy

Maybe she is exhausted? Would it be possible to isolate her for a while and see if she improves with rest.

Hi.

My first recommendation is that you get the nitrites tested asap. With some ammonia in the tank, you may be dealing with nitrites as well which can be deadly.

Water quality is the absolutly most important thing to the fish, so working to improve that is first on any list.
I would also recommend not medicating, at this point I see no need and it can make the water more deadly.

I am not sure if you know or not but the whisper filter 60 really isn't big enough to filter a 50 gal tank. I am not a fan of that brand of filter anyways because you can crash your cycle quick with just changing the cartridge.

Also may I ask why you are not using a water conditioner?

Hi there.

My Nitrites actually are 0, sorry, wrote the wrong one down.

I am actually concerned that she is severely impacted with eggs. As I said she has been busy all summer laying eggs. From what I understand, nothing but surgery can be done. I am very sad.

I don't think it is dropsey because she is swollen in the lower abdominal region.

I guess I will stop medicating then, although I feel very stressed about trying to help her.

Goldcrazy

If you think she is bound with eggs, you can raise the temp in the tank to around 80 degrees. Make sure to only increase it 2 degrees every hour. A fast spike will cause problems.

NExt you can use Maracyn 2 for this, if may or may not help with bound eggs or impaction, but is worth a try.
Start feeding a medicated food, for if she starts to have an infection caused by the eggs, this will give her a leg up.

I'm sorry to hear about your fish. I hope that it is not egg impaction. No meds for that condition and massaging is not recommended as it can do some real phyiscal damage. There is a chance that the eggs will still be reabsorbed in time. Fingers X'ed.

Thank you all for writing, but she died this morning. I am really very sad. I haven't had the courage to "open" her up to see if it really was impacted eggs or not. Think I'll just let her go.

The good thing is I have 25 of her babies growing rapidly in other tanks. So I choose to think she lives on.

Goldcrazy

I'm so sorry about your lost. If she went downhill real quickly then it is most likely egg impaction.

For future reference, is there anyway that impaction can be avoided? I think that it is a build up of scar tissue, but was it my fault for leaving her in with the male all summer? I thought that I had heard that wether there is a male around or not, that they produce the eggs... I just worry with all of my fish, that when they become sexually mature that all of my females will die. I can't handle that!!!

Goldcrazy

I'm so sorry about your girl . I don't know of any ways to avoid impaction but hopefully it will be an isolated case. I've got two girls and they've never had any problems, I don't think its the norm for them to have that sort of troubles, I'm sure your others will be fine, just watch them really close.