Solving the most bizarre death incident!?

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TheHolyArachnid

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Mar 20, 2012
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I bought a pair of convicts just two weeks ago. The female was 2 inches and the male is a little over 2.5 inches. Well they were kept in a 55g tank with no other fish. Just them two. The male was chasing her quite a bit just yesterday, but it wasn't serious. Though I've noticed if she got close to the cave he would flap his fins then chase her.
Just this morning I looked in my 55g and found my female convict dead on the ground with a FAT belly. I was shocked because there were no bite marks on her fins or body. When I went to net her out, she just exploded! Eggs and intestines were everywhere in the tank, it was disgusting. Did she die because she held her eggs in too long? Or did she die because the male did not let her lay eggs? The male convict was very docile with her the first few days, just digging and cleaning off the cave with her. Then he started getting mean, chasing her when ever she got close to him.

Have you guys ever experienced something like this? It is bizarre. I've never seen a female cichlid die from not laying eggs, until today. Do you guys think it was the males fault? I've bred convicts before but nothing ever happened to the females like today.
 
my ram cichlid female died after killing her male andi woke up to the samething she blew up also
 
Usually they just drop the eggs, but i have seen ones basically blow apart inside, but not outside.

Spike :)


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Maybe she wasn't able to lay the eggs due to a physiological problem. I know convicts are a far cry from guppies, but with guppies the fish are so overbred that they often have weak genetics and die giving birth b/c they can't pass the babies due to their size/shape. It's a sort of deformity from bad genes.

Since convicts are very easy to breed and are frequently bred, maybe something similar happened. Maybe she couldn't pass the eggs cause the opening was too small, the pressure built up, and then when she died and softened, the result was nasty.

Anyway, just a theory.
 
Mount_Prion said:
Maybe she wasn't able to lay the eggs due to a physiological problem. I know convicts are a far cry from guppies, but with guppies the fish are so overbred that they often have weak genetics and die giving birth b/c they can't pass the babies due to their size/shape. It's a sort of deformity from bad genes.

Since convicts are very easy to breed and are frequently bred, maybe something similar happened. Maybe she couldn't pass the eggs cause the opening was too small, the pressure built up, and then when she died and softened, the result was nasty.

Anyway, just a theory.
Click to expand...

The thing is the female convict didn't look deformed/interbred at all. Perfect boy shape, perfect stripes, and a mean attitude.
Here is a photo of the male and female convict.
Convicts 004.JPG

Male Convict.JPG

Convicts 004.JPG
 
As an aside, does anybody else find it kind of awesomely symmetrical that somebody named Mysterious is posing a forensic mystery? I mean what happened to your fish is really awful and I'm sorry, but that aspect is kind of neat.
 
Azedenkae said:
Doesnt matter if it is perfect everything else. A mutation in its genome can affect just one thing. I agree with Mount_Prion, seems like she simply couldnt lay eggs, which was piling up in her day after day until... boom.
Click to expand...

I understand.
But do you think it could of been the males fault? He wouldn't let her near the cave when her belly was plump, he chased her away every time. So therefore she couldn't lay her eggs then held it in too long? Why couldn't she just lay her eggs somewhere else without the male?
 
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