Can't Get Up-HELP!

[CanadianWaters]

I am really about my my Apistogramma Cacautoids! He is just lying on his side and can't swim upright. When I first walked in I thought he was dead, which honestly brought me to tears until I saw him struggle to swim up to the glass which was worse. What's wrong with him?

29 Gallon Long
Amm-0
Nit-0
Nat=5-10

 

[CanadianWaters]

Sadly, he didn't make it through the night and I'm sad because I have no idea why he died.

 

[Fishfur]

Sorry for the loss. Sad truth is, we often never learn why fish sicken and die, especially when it appears suddenly like this did.

It's impossible to say what was wrong, but from the sound of not being able to swim properly, he might have damaged the swim bladder. It can happen if they bang into something hard enough, or if they have an infection or even from constipation, but it doesn't usually get this severe this quickly.

He might have had an infection for awhile too. Fish, like most animals, will try to hide it if they feel sick, because in nature, to be visibly sick is likely going to mean being eaten by something else. So they hide it, sometimes very very well, until it gets so bad they can't hide it any more. So it looks very sudden to us, but it really was going on for awhile before that.

Hope there are no more losses.