Very Sick/Suffering Fish! No idea what this is...!

[saa5886]

I had purchased a female guppy from the LFS about a week ago. She was fat, so we assumed she was pregnant.
Yesterday, I noticed she was lethargic and laying on the bottom of the tank. I looked closely and noticed that it appeared something was trying to come out of her butt hole (sorry I dont know the proper term). I thought maybe she was about to give birth...
This morning I woke up to see she now has red veins all down her body, and is back on the bottom of the quarantine tank, looking lethargic. That swollen area around her butt hole is still there, and has gotten bigger. She appears to have fin rot as well.
What in the world is this? I've been treating my community tank for 4 days now because I noticed fin rot (with salt, heat, and meds). Everyone else seems to be taking this okay, but she's the only one with something coming out of her butt, and crazy red veins all down her side. Any ideas?

 

[Khalix]

I did some googling and found someone with a similar situation, except for with gouramis. Could it be an anchorworm? Do you see any kind of movement from whatever it is near her rectum, or is it just a bump?

Also, check this link: Septicemia

Might explain the red veins and apparently is common sometimes when there's a parasite involved.

Hope it works out, but the septicemia definitely doesn't look promising.

 

[saa5886]

I saw that same thing after googling as well....but I honestly cant see any kind of worm at all...only swelling..
Could this be a pregnancy gone horribly wrong? She gave birth to one guppy a few days ago(I know this because I just saw a fry in the tank while doing a 50% water change in the community tank), now shes still fat with these red veins down her belly and a swollen butt....

 

[saa5886]

I should probably also clarify that when I say "laying on the bottom", she's not laying on her side or anything...she's just on the bottom in the same way that fish sleep on the bottom of a tank. Also, the red veins are only on one side of her body. She's extremely fat like she's about to bust some fry..
I just observed her for a minute.. Her breathing is fine and she's moving her fins normally. She looks to me like she's trying to have babies but it's going horribly wrong. Could this be the case?

 

[Khalix]

It seems possible. I'm just concerned about the red veins. That's the only situation I've heard of it occuring, but I don't have a lot of experience with pregnant guppies. Hopefully someone else will know for sure.

Perhaps she has a bacterial infection and it's making the pregnancy more difficult?

 

[saa5886]

She doesnt have any color loss, her fins arent clamped, her redness isnt near her head or gills from what I can see... I'm not sure what this is...

 

[saa5886]

well she died... thanks everyone for all the comments. 39 people looked at this post and only one commented? really? thanks!

 

[dkpate]

If people don't know an answer, they are not going to leave a comment....

Sorry about your fish.

 

[Saltair]

I read these posts hoping to learn to help my fish in the future. No offense intended i'm just new. For what its worth I posted for help a few days ago and 38 people have looked with no answers. I just figure nobody knows.

 

[Khalix]

Sorry to hear.

How many fry did you notice before she passed away? Was it just the one?

 

[Tahl]

I just wanted to leave a comment about this, I'm not 100% positive about this however. I have had two gold gourami now that I received from 2 different PetSmart. The series of events with each gourami is that they seemed healthy at first, and then their stomachs began to bloat and they started to seem lethargic and they would hang out at the bottom of the tank. The only time they would come to the top of the tank was for air (I believe this would be different for non-labryinth fish though). After some time they each one had a red dot appear on their stomach that eventually turned into streaks down their sides. Maybe after a day or two, they would sit on their sides struggling.

Apparently it is highly contagious and I just lost my second gourami to it a few days ago while it was in quarantine with a second gold gourami (that is still healthy), a red tailed shark, and a rubber lip pleco. The first time I tried treating with API general cure and Jungle Anti-Bacterial food, but I couldn't get it to eat.

From my searching though, it seems that places like PetSmart use an open tank system where all of their tank water is shared. This means that if they have dwarf gouramis and the dwarf gourami iridovirus is transferable to other types of fish, it is likely that both of our fish died from it.

Dwarf gourami iridovirus is apparently specific to the dwarf gourami (Colisa lalia), including the various fancy varieties of the species, such as neon gouramis and sunset gouramis. Infected fish develop a variety of symptoms, including loss of color, decrease in activity and appetite, the appearance of sores and lesions on the body, abdominal swelling and finally death. This fish disease is highly contagious, completely untreatable and invariably fatal.

Dwarf gourami iridovirus is apparently very common. One recent study of fish exported from Singapore found that 22 percent of all dwarf gouramis carried the virus. Aquarists should never purchase dwarf gouramis from fish tanks containing fish exhibiting symptoms consistent with the dwarf gourami iridovirus, and all new fish should be quarantined for at least six weeks prior to being placed in the main fish aquarium.

I just wanted to mention that I possibly had fin rot as well, but it was too hard to tell with gourami's nipping at the fins. I also wanted to mention that the normal iridovirus has the same symptoms, but I don't believe it is as fatal. I am not sure of a cure for it, because I am still pretty new to the fish world.