My catfish ate itself to death!

[Cloudk]

Last year I purchased a Otocinclus(obviously not a monster fish), It was a cute little fish. One day I noticed it was kinda fat, did research and they said it's supposed to be a little portly. Well ok. He ate my turtles poo for about 2 months. For the first month he was a little fat, but not bad. Then his tummy kept on getting bigger, and bigger, and bigger! He was deficating, so he wasn't "plugged". Then, one day, I found my poor little fish w/ his tummy open and quite dead. I thought maybe a tumor. But after he died and I saw in there, nothing. Didn't have another tank to separate him. So, has anyone had a fish eat itself to death?

 

[knifegill]

Could have been an internal parasite, too.

I had a baby chinese algae eater eat itself to death overnight. Skinny when I put it in, the next morning it was laying there popped open. He'd taken on most of a fuzzy 55g by himself and lost the battle. Poor guy. But the time frame for yours makes overeating an unlikely choice for cause of death. Not impossible, though.

 

[kevinfleming21]

sounds like a possible parasitic issue to me.

 

[Steelingheads]

I have seen a Gourami burst from eating tiny tadpoles (not my fish)... and I had a Red Tail Cat that killed itself by eating a thermometer.... So it happens, but I wouldn't rule out the other possibilities already mentioned.

 

[Redearsunfish]

Yup, parasites or something internal like that.

 

[Chicklette]

I also had an algae eaten that happened to, I think it's common with them. It's belly just kept getting bigger and bigger. But sorry that happened.