Does my Bella's big belly concern you?

[vanguard]

I've had "Fella the Bella" for about three months now. He's acting normally, sifting sand between chilling sessions. He swims normally, everything seems ok except he eats a bit less during feeding and his belly has been huge for at least three days.

What do you think?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I've had "Fella the Bella" for about three months now. He's acting normally, sifting sand between chilling sessions. He swims normally, everything seems ok except he eats a bit less during feeding and his belly has been huge for at least three days.

What do you think?

That is concerning to me - sand sifters should never get so much food that they fill out like a lionfish or grouper would. I can also see a prolapse of its intestine.
IMO - there is some sort of blockage here. Fixing those is difficult, especially if the blockage is caused by a stone or something non digestible. You may read “use Epsom salts” - but that doesn’t work for marine fish, as 1/4 of the salts are already Epsom salts.
Sorry I don’t have a solution for you though…..

 

[vanguard]

That is concerning to me - sand sifters should never get so much food that they fill out like a lionfish or grouper would. I can also see a prolapse of its intestine.
IMO - there is some sort of blockage here. Fixing those is difficult, especially if the blockage is caused by a stone or something non digestible. You may read “use Epsom salts” - but that doesn’t work for marine fish, as 1/4 of the salts are already Epsom salts.
Sorry I don’t have a solution for you though…..

That sucks. It's a lot worse than our, "Maybe this 'guy' is filled with eggs".

He does poop, so maybe there is hope? We'll see.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

That sucks. It's a lot worse than our, "Maybe this 'guy' is filled with eggs".

He does poop, so maybe there is hope? We'll see.

Could be - it’s possible that what I thought was a prolapsed intestine is actually part of its reproductive track. Egg binding is also an issue with no good treatment. Some fish will release the eggs, but if they don’t, septicemia can set in.

 

[MnFish1]

I wonder about eggs. However - it is quite swollen

 

[MnFish1]

Could be - it’s possible that what I thought was a prolapsed intestine is actually part of its reproductive track. Egg binding is also an issue with no good treatment. Some fish will release the eggs, but if they don’t, septicemia can set in.

you can have a prolapsed cloaca as well - which it could be? - and thus eggs not being expelled?

 

[vetteguy53081]

I see possible prolapse but as Jay stated- this is not treatable but rather passable in which needs to pass what may be the blockage. Expelling waste is a good sign and if eating, I would Not feed any dry foods but only brine shrimp which offers best chance of loosening up any solid matter

 

[vanguard]

I took another picture in case it helps our experts seen what's under his big belly.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I took another picture in case it helps our experts seen what's under his big belly.

I’m starting to lean more towards egg
Binding here - the swelling is far back.

 

[vanguard]

I was hoping to see that today his belly had shrunk. Nope, it might even be bigger and it looks red/injured a bit. He's not eating, pooping, or sand sifting. He's just kind of swimming and chilling. His mobility looks good but I don't like the direction he's trending.

I don't know what I can do. I want to squeeze him like a pimple but I'm pretty sure that would be fish murder.

 

[Jay Hemdal]

I was hoping to see that today his belly had shrunk. Nope, it might even be bigger and it looks red/injured a bit. He's not eating, pooping, or sand sifting. He's just kind of swimming and chilling. His mobility looks good but I don't like the direction he's trending.

I don't know what I can do. I want to squeeze him like a pimple but I'm pretty sure that would be fish murder.

Sorry - that looks much worse. There now seems to be be a bulge more off to its right side. Squeezing a fish with egg binding or constipation has never worked for me, too much internal damage is done. I've even had a veterinarian inject oxytocin (a egg release hormone) into fish to see if the eggs would be released naturally, and that pretty much failed every time we did that.....

Jay

 

[vanguard]

Well, the belly bulge has reduced a bit. However, just in the last hour something concerning is coming out of him. I don't know what I'm looking at. Intestines?

 

[Jay Hemdal]

Well, the belly bulge has reduced a bit. However, just in the last hour something concerning is coming out of him. I don't know what I'm looking at. Intestines?

Not sure what that is. Hopefully, it is just a bolus of feces. If so, that should pass pretty soon. I've (rarely) seen inverted intestines in fish, if this hangs around for more than a few hours, I would begin to worry that might be the issue.

 

[vanguard]

I have good news. His swollen belly has reduced a bit more and he is sand sifting again. Maybe he's going to pull through this?

I made a 1 minute video showing his status as of this morning, Feb 25, 2024. I talk about what I'm seeing in it, you can choose to mute me or not.

 

[vanguard]

As a quick measure of appreciation I thought I'd wrap up this thread with a video of how my fish is doing now. He's approaching 100% healthy again.

 

[EasternShoreman]

So glad to see the recovery!!!