Guppy with a swollen belly

I woke up 2 days ago (April 11th) with my Moscow's belly really swollen. Not enough to pinecone, but enough that I feared he might get dropsy if I didn't do anything. After researching swollen fish bellies, I thought he might be constipated (I had finished a treatment with Seachem Polyguard 2 1/2 months ago, and Metroplex in food for parasites 2 months ago, so I don't think it's a parasitic infection). I read a lot about Epsom Salt baths, and decided to give this a try. That evening, I mixed 2 gallons of the aquarium gallon with 2 tablespoons of Epsom salt and then let him swim in the water for 10 minutes.

He began pooping less than 20 minutes later, and by the next morning (yesterday), his belly had gone down considerably and he looked almost normal. He continued pooping that whole day with really long poops, so I didn't give him an Epsom bath. Then this morning, I woke up to him a little swollen again. I went ahead and gave him another 10-minute Epsom Salt bath before going to work, and I'm hoping he'll be alright when I see him again later.

This had never happened before in the 8 months I've had my Moscow, and there are only two recent changes that might have caused this:

1. I changed their feeding schedule. I used to feed them one meal every evening, but as I now have female pregnant guppies (most recent addition), I began feeding them 2 or 3 smaller meals spread out throughout the day. If changing the diet is enough to disrupt his digestive system, this might be the cause.
2. I added live plants. I'm in the middle of transitioning to live plants, and added the live plants listed below. If my Moscow began eating these plants, it might explain the swelling and what I think is constipation.

I would also like to note that I'm currently treating him for fin rot using Seachem Stress Guard (if there's little to no change in a week, I'll move on to stronger medication, but I'm hoping the methylene blue in Stress Guard will do the trick). I'm fairly new as an aquarist (Moscow is the fish I've had the longest, for 8 months now), so I didn't notice the condition until I posted a photo on Reddit for help and someone pointed it out.

Finally, his demeanor/energy has been normal every day. Even with his belly very swollen, he was chasing the ladies around and swimming about the tank as usual.

I would deeply appreciate any advice or suggestions for helping my guppy. Photos are attached at the bottom of the post; I didn't get a photo this morning, but he looked way less swollen than April 11th, but a little more than the 12th. I apologize for the low quality of the first two, which were taken with my phone and in a rush, but I hope his belly is still visible enough.

Tank & Stock:

• 36g bowfront tank with Top Fin Silenstream 40 Gal filter (uses PF-L cartridges). I cycled it 9 months ago or so using liquid ammonia before adding my fish a month later.
• 6 Guppies (2 male, 4 female)
• 4 Panda Cory Cats
• 2 Honey Gourami
• 1 Assassin Snail who eats bladder snails

Plants:

• Many plastic decorations
• Java Moss
• Guppy Grass
• A Marimo
• A small plant whose ID I'm unsure of

Maintenance:

• Weekly 25% water change (I siphon the gravel in different areas of the tank every time) and condition the new water with Seachem Prime
• Swish carbon filter in removed water weekly to remove debris, and keep old filter media (separated from carbon) in media bag next to filter.
• Dose Seachem Stability after %WC
• Biweekly water tests (API Master Test Kit) or when I'm being paranoid (which is often)

Parameters:

• 0 ppm Ammonia
• 0 ppm Nitrite
• 5-10 ppm Nitrate

Moscow on April 11 (the morning he was very swollen):



Moscow on April 12 (the day he got a little better after pooping all day):



Moscow normally:



Thank you for taking the time to read this, and please comment if you have any suggestions. I really love my little guys, and I want to save them if I can.

 

Sorry to hear about your fish.

What brand do you feed and how much do you feed each time? What do you feed the corries with?

IME, with dropsy the fish will usually start to show other symptoms before any swelling or pineconing. This includes lethargicy, not eating, and occasionally discoloration.

The fact that his stomach has greatly reduced when he pooped is making me think it’s a digestive issue.

 

Sorry to hear about your fish.

What brand do you feed and how much do you feed each time? What do you feed the corries with?

IME, with dropsy the fish will usually start to show other symptoms before any swelling or pineconing. This includes lethargicy, not eating, and occasionally discoloration.

The fact that his stomach has greatly reduced when he pooped is making me think it’s a digestive issue.

Thank you so much for replying, cdwag29! I appreciate the information about the symptoms of Dropsy; thankfully, my Moscow has been energetic (and still hungry, even though today marks the third day fasting him. I also think it's a digestive issue, although I cannot for the life of me understand how he keeps pooping such crazy amounts! I'm beginning to think he might be eating the plants, and I've already relocated some to test this theory.

As for food, I feed my guppies these foods (each fed a different day of the week, never two at once):

• Hikari Fancy Guppy pellets soaked in Seachem Garlic Guard (2 days of the week) - a single large pinch for 6 guppies per day
• Ocean Nutrition Brand INSTANT Baby Brine Shrimp (2 days of the week) - 3 drops per day
• San Francisco Bay Brand Frozen Brine Shrimp (2 days of the week) - a chunk equal to a large pinch, thawed first.
• Hikari Blood Worms (once a week at max) - about 1-2 blood worms per guppy.

Recently, because I have some pregnant guppies, I started dividing these same portions throughout the day, but the amounts are the same.

I feed my Cory Cats:

• Hikari Sinking Carnivore Pellets (4 daily)
• Hikari Sinking Wafers (1-2 as an addition to carnivore pellets every other day, subtracting from the number of carnivore pellets)

In response to your reply on my introduction thread, I really do love my fish! I can't thank you enough for taking the time to reply to me! I really appreciate it!

How Moscow's looking right now (taken an hour ago):

 

I think you are genuinely the nicest person I’ve ever talked to.

My guess is that he may be overeating himself on extra food for the bottom feeders. My old beta would often be severly bloated after I tried to feed my loaches because he would eat their wafers no matter what I did.

Do you feed the corries at the same time as your other fish?

In the picture he looks pretty healthy to me, not much bloat as far as I can see. His activity level and the mass ammount of pooping (as well as it being brown and stringy) makes me just think you have a very greedy fish.

 

I think you are genuinely the nicest person I’ve ever talked to.

My guess is that he may be overeating himself on extra food for the bottom feeders. My old beta would often be severly bloated after I tried to feed my loaches because he would eat their wafers no matter what I did.

Do you feed the corries at the same time as your other fish?

In the picture he looks pretty healthy to me, not much bloat as far as I can see. His activity level and the mass ammount of pooping (as well as it being brown and stringy) makes me just think you have a very greedy fish.

Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm grateful for others and their kindness, and I try my best to show it and reciprocate!

As for Moscow being greedy... YES he is! He used to pick at the Cories' food, so I started feeding the Cories after lights out, since they're nocturnal anyway and the guppies sleep at night. It hasn't been a problem since I began doing that about 5-6 months ago, but I'm going to go ahead and observe them for the next weeks anyway to see if maybe that's the issue.

As for the picture, after the Epsom Salt bath this morning, his belly went down some more, and he's STILL pooping even now. I'm glad he looks normal to you - I can't tell if he's bloated or not anymore after these few crazy days trying to help him. Even when I'm comparing photos, I keep being paranoid that he's more bloated than I think.

I truly appreciate your much more experienced eye! It's brought me a relief I can't even put into words.

 

Thank you so much for the compliment! I'm grateful for others and their kindness, and I try my best to show it and reciprocate!

As for Moscow being greedy... YES he is! He used to pick at the Cories' food, so I started feeding the Cories after lights out, since they're nocturnal anyway and the guppies sleep at night. It hasn't been a problem since I began doing that about 5-6 months ago, but I'm going to go ahead and observe them for the next weeks anyway to see if maybe that's the issue.

As for the picture, after the Epsom Salt bath this morning, his belly went down some more, and he's STILL pooping even now. I'm glad he looks normal to you - I can't tell if he's bloated or not anymore after these few crazy days trying to help him. Even when I'm comparing photos, I keep being paranoid that he's more bloated than I think.

I truly appreciate your much more experienced eye! It's brought me a relief I can't even put into words.

I’m just a teen who tries to help the best I can based off of the knowledge I’ve read and learned from others..I am in no way “muched more experienced!” Glad I could help though!

Do you notice he takes a lot of food from the other fish when you do your “main” feeding?

Guppies poop a lot; they are pretty messy little fish. As long as he’s active and the bloating has reduced I wouldn’t worry too much about how much he’s pooping.

If the bloating is not a constant thing, I’ll go out on a limb and say it might’ve just been a one time thing where he was able to get his “hands” on an excess of food. When comparing him to other pictures of guppies you can see that their stomachs look very similar; no alarming swelling or bulging, but still slightly rounded if you will (hope that helps a bit with your paranoria.)

 

I’m just a teen who tries to help the best I can based off of the knowledge I’ve read and learned from others..I am in no way “muched more experienced!” Glad I could help though!

Do you notice he takes a lot of food from the other fish when you do your “main” feeding?

Guppies poop a lot; they are pretty messy little fish. As long as he’s active and the bloating has reduced I wouldn’t worry too much about how much he’s pooping.

If the bloating is not a constant thing, I’ll go out on a limb and say it might’ve just been a one time thing where he was able to get his “hands” on an excess of food. When comparing him to other pictures of guppies you can see that their stomachs look very similar; no alarming swelling or bulging, but still slightly rounded if you will (hope that helps a bit with your paranoria.)

I may be older than you, but I'm only barely approaching a year into the aquarium hobby, so I still consider you more experienced!

About Moscow stealing others' food... yep, he certainly tries. I've had to take a large net and break his line of sight when feeding the lady guppies because otherwise he's suuuper fast and eats everything within seconds! He's crazy ravenous, not to mention significantly bigger than the other male AND females. My other male guppy, Enigma, now prefers to eat in the middle of the water column, so he gets the food that floats down, but at the beginning (before I added the ladies) I felt he didn't eat enough because of how much Moscow ate so quickly off the surface.

And yes, this has been the first time Moscow has become so bloated. I'm hoping it won't become an ongoing problem. Thanks to you, I'm now seeing him more clearly, so you certainly helped calm my worries! I truly appreciate your help on this!

 

I wish I could give you some more tips on how to avoide over eating with him. Perhaps spread how the food in different spots in the tank rather than just one and do a day of fasting if you feel it’s needed? Otherwise, doing what you’re doing with the net may be a good idea to do if he’s always outeating everyone.

 

I wish I could give you some more tips on how to avoide over eating with him. Perhaps spread how the food in different spots in the tank rather than just one and do a day of fasting if you feel it’s needed? Otherwise, doing what you’re doing with the net may be a good idea to do if he’s always outeating everyone.

The tips you've given me have already been incredibly helpful! I'll try spreading the food out like you suggested, and if still necessary continue using the net. I also fast my entire tank for a day once a month or so, but I'll see if increasing the frequency to once a week or every 2 weeks helps.

This morning his belly looked normal, so I'm feeling hopeful that he'll be okay. Once more, I want to thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts and suggestions with me on this thread!