Endler's Livebearer - Belly BURST open... Please see picture inside.

[Darb21]

Can anyone tell me what this is? It literally looks like her belly has burst open and her intestines are hanging out.

Anyone know what this is or what could cause it? Bacterial infection of some sort maybe? I'm worried now cause I'm starting to think that some of the other fish in the tank have rather large bellies too... hoping its not some infection of some sort that they all have and that I'm gonna have a bunch of them bust open.

Looking for thoughts and suggestions here.

Thanks
-Brad

 

[littlecich]

My first thought on the cause of this is internal parasites.

 

[JohnPaul]

First off, that fish cannot survive...if it is not dead already, please euthanize the fish at the first convenient opportunity. If you don't know anything about euthanizing fish, this is a good resource with some basic info. Note that there are varied opinions in the aquarium hobby about how best to do this, my point in providing that link is not to weigh in on the current debate but rather simply to provide a starting point.

As for the diagnosis of "why," it's probably impossible to say without a microscopic examination by someone who is a fish expert. But it looks to me like either some sort of internal infection that weakened the lining of the gut, or else possibly a really really bad case of constipation that entirely blocked the fish's digestive track.

 

[jsoong]

I would think some kind of parasite ... flukes? ..... as well. For the sake of the other fish, you do need to do an autopsy on the fish (after it is dead, or if you decide to euthanize it) to get a clue on what is going on. <I know .... eew & all that .... but you can't tell just by looking at it from the outside.>

You would need to cut open the belly & see if the stuff sticking out is the gut or part of the fish (It does not look like gut to me from the pic.) Or perhaps it is a separate organism like flukes or anchor worms. Parasites that burst out like that are usu. visible to the eye or with a magnifier glass. If you have a microscope, you can do a simple wet mount & see if there is something. There are internet resources of collected pics of fish parasites under microscopy to help.

 

[FishEggs]

It's an alien!!!!!