Why do my fish keep getting constipated and dying?

Question

I feel awful and can't figure out what I'm doing wrong. I had two fish that looked exactly alike except their coloring was different. First the brown one was swimming funny, he was constipated and died. I tried feeding them less food, thinking I was overdoing it. A couple months later, the orange one did the same thing. He had what looked like a darkish mass in his belly and he was swimming funny, all listless, and one day he was dead.

My last three fish are a cory catfish, female betta (very placid), and a guppy. This morning, I fed the fish and the guppy looks all bloated, has what looks like a dark mass in his belly, a string of feces coming out and he's just kinda hovering around and acting all listless. Cory and Betta are fine.

I feed them once a day. The "pinch" thing is stupid because I can pick up quite a bit of food with 2 fingers, I wish I knew exact measurements. Anyway, I only give them a "teeny bit." I give them Tetley's flake food.

What am I doing wrong?

Answer 1

Feeding only dry food can make them constipated. Several things you can try: don't feed them at all once a week; cook a green pea pop the soft middle out and give that to the fish (fiber, most will peck at it getting some greens into their diet, but remove the pea before it starts going fuzzy); feed real food once a week (or more). By real food I mean frozen or live (but not freeze-dried) worms, adult brine shrimp, bloodworms, glassworms, mysis shrimp--a good tropical fish store should carry these. If you can get live daphnia, those are excellent roughage (and since they move, the fish get a chance to use their hunting skills). Live worms (blackworms, white worms) and adult brine shrimp can be gotten at a good tropical fish store too, rinse these before feeding. All are high in fiber and most fish accustom to flake food will relish having real meat food.

Answer 2

The previous poster hit the answer exactly. Feeding only dry foods is most likely the problem. With your current selection of fish I would suggest you add some frozen bloodworms, brine shrimp or similar foods to their diet as well as the occasional veggie. Feed them staple foods most of the time, but slip in some of the other food instead 2-3 times a week.

As far as feeding goes, feed them as much as they can eat in 2-3 minutes per feeding. Feed that way once or twice a day. Before long you'll get the feel for how much that is.

MM

Answer 3

Your pH is too high for all those fish, but shouldn't kill them that quickly, especially if you acclimated them. If you didn't acclimate, that might be on of the reasons you are having troubles. The chemical adjustment will not help and is garbage so don't waste your money on the pH down products. You are much better off getting high pH fish instead, or using RO water and adding back in the trace elements and buffers to adjust to the proper water chemistry. Also, how is your current and filtration? What are your levels of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate. What is your temp? I can better help you with those details. ------ Yeah, with high alkalinity you will not be able to adjust the pH down using chemicals as the high buffer capacity of the tank will prevent shifts. So the checmical pH adjustment would just be a waste of money. RO (reverse osmosis) water is filtered water stripped of most elements found in tap water. It is basically like starting with a clean slate. You can also just use some RO water or distilled water to mix in with your tap water to help bring the pH down. You do not want to use 100% RO water without adding back in some desired trace elements and minerals, but it works well to dilute the tap water and make it more neutral and a lot softer. You can use bottle water or even buy RO water from places like the grocery store or a pet store, etc. You are best to just get higher pH fish though. There are many. Which whisper filter? Internal, hang on back? I am not familiar with a 10-40 gallon one, but the internal is 20-40 gallon, and not the best for the larger tanks. It is likely that you just do not have enough current in the tank and are limited on oxygen content. The hotter water, elevated ammonia at the start of the cycle, and low oxygen content were just a "perfect storm" that the fish could not overcome. Is the water surface of the tank look pretty still or does it have nice ripples? You might be able to solve all your trouble by adding just a little surface water movement. This can be accomplished by adding an air wand, getting a hang on back filter, getting a powerhead and facing it towards the surface of the tank, etc. Anything to get that surface water moving. Plants are a good choice to help with water quality.

Answer 4

maybe try a different brand of food and ask the shop what they recommend. When figuring out how much to feed them I was told if there was food floating at the top of the tank after two minutes then you are feeding your fish to much. It might not be the food it could also be a bacteria that the fish are getting I would buy a multi remedy medicine for the tank that you put in every so often. hope this helps

Answer 5

I dont know. I've been very lucky with my fish, we have only had 2 die out of the 8 we've gotten, and fish from Walmart, arent known for living that long. Perhaps its a condition? Not constipation? I feed mine every other night. We havent had one look ill, or die in over a year.

Answer 6

too little information to answer...what type of tank is it? what do you have for filtration? What does the water look like; clear, milky, green? what type of fish are they ?

Where are you buying your fish from?

or ...just bad maintenance habits...kill em with kindness mentality doesn't work with fish... you over feed and with inadequate filtration system and you might as well as flush right from the store bag!

Answer 7

feed them greens and krill -- just boil greens (spinach, lettuce, kale) until they wilt and chop them up in ribbons. you can also chop up green peas.

krill comes frozen (freeze dried doesn't work so great). frozen spirulina will work too. you can even take a hammer to a pack of frozen spinach -- work off some angst and make your fish regular.

a variety of food will keep your fish happy.

Answer 8

you dont have to skimp so much on the food. Just so they can eat all of it in 10 minutes. Add some freshwater aquarium salt for bloating and constipation. Take a water sample to your local petstore, most do free water tests on your water. If not, its cheap.

Answer 9

Haha I'm soooo sorry but thats really funny. Try feeding it less.

Answer 10

maybe you have the fish curse.
you know, whenever you get fish they die.
horrible.
it sounds very strange!