Thought it was pregnant, but it just died...

[illuminum]

This may seem like a really stupid question, but I can't figure out if one of my rainbow fish is fat, sick, or pregnant. The front bottom portion of the fish looks somewhat bloated. Do you think that it may be pregnant? I tried to take a photo but couldn't get a decent shot.

 

[Allivymar]

First you get em to pee on that little strip.

Oh..erm..rainbowfish *grin*

First off, are you sure its a female? I'm sorta unfamiliar with rainbows, and don't know if they are sexually dimorphic.

Also, is there any pre-breeding activity in the tank? I know angelfish get all aggressive and clean where they think they're going to lay, rams take on breeding color; not sure what rainbows do.

Is the fish pooing? If you can catch it in the act, whats the poo look like?

And is there any other behavior changes (lethargic, not eating, etc)?

 

[illuminum]

Okay, well I haven't caught my fish pooping yet, but I noticed today that she's acting somewhat differently today. For a while she was hiding in the corner of my tank behind some driftwood just laying on the substrate (in the upright position). Is seems somewhat lethargic lately and is still "fat" in the forward to middle lower portion of it's body. I haven't noticed and external abnormalities that could be caused by disease other than it's fat appearance. All water prarameters are normal as well.

So do you guys have any better clue as to if my fish is pregnant or not? If so, what should I do? If you think it's sick, what do you think it has?

Any seggestions would be appreciated.

I just looked up dropsy and haven't noticed any scales sticking out from the fish.

I don't even know if this rainbow is male or female. Is there any way I can tell?

 

[illuminum]

Well ****. My Rainbow just died. I was really excited and thought that it was pregnant, but I guess it had dropsy or columnaris (I'm still not sure). I came back to my tank to check up on my tank just now and saw it stuck to the filter upside down. I noticed something very strange about this dead fish. The head of the fish was black and so were part of the fins. It wasn't like that 2 hours ago. I've never seen that before... I'm really upset and don't know where to get more of these beautiful praecox rainbowfish her in So. Cal.

Does anyone know if columnaris or dropsy infect the whole tank or just one fish...

This really sucks

Oh, and to top things off I just read that praecox are egglaying fish, so it obviously wasn't pregnant. I should've been paying more attention.

 

[Allivymar]

Aw damn; I'm sorry illuminum

Do know that dropsy doesn't require the pine-coning of scales; thats only one of the signs; looks like you were right when you guessed that might be it.

As for it being pregnant; obviously it couldn't be using the word correctly, but it COULD have been full of eggs. My angels and rams get all stuffed full of eggs right before they lay; thats what I was thinking of when you said pregnant. And theres an off chance it was actually egg bound; it sometimes happens to egg layers. Occasionally they are unable to release the eggs and wind up dying because of ensuing infections. I do think in this case it was dropsy tho *sigh*

Will it be a problem with the others? Hard to say; dropsy is a sign of disease, not an disease itself. Dropsy is when the internal organs start failing (specifically the kidneys) and the fish is unable to clear their bodies of extra water. Thing is, what is causing the failure? Keep a close eye on your other guys and your water parameters. If any of the others start looking ill, isolate em immediately (I should have just told you to do that before, but wasn't 100% sure it wasn't full of eggs - I'd have felt bad if it laid em without a male to fertilize *slaps self*). I'm not going to suggest treating yet; lets see if you need to first.