Had a death over the weekend.

She was struggling to swim, sinking and started turning on her side. We rushed out and bought cambomba, eledora densa, and some marbles as we thought she might lay the eggs...

Current was overpowering her from filter so I moved her to bigger tank thinking she might just be tired.

Alas in the morning she was dead.

All others are okay.. not sure what caused it. She had been swallon for quite a while now, I did a little cutting on the body and saw some white little balls which I assume are the eggs.. and being white im assuming maybe they went bad?

First fish death :(

If all water parameters are as they should be (ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrates under 40) then it sounds like she was egg bound. The colour of the eggs isn't really relevant as egg laying fish's eggs are not fertilised until after they have been laid. Determining fertility by colour can't be done until the males have made an attempt at fertilisation once the eggs are out of the fish and in the tank. Sorry you lost her

Ohh no how sad, I hope this doesnt happen to mine.

Im gonna hjack the post as a question hope you dont mind?..

My Zebra danios are always spawning (i think) They literally roll around with one another under leaves..

2 of them have defintally signs of possible pregnancy bigger bellys than the others..but how long does the process take?

I know that unless i take the eggs out the fry have no chance.. I feel a little bit cruel,is it healthly for them to keep breeding like this? Should i seperate the males?

Ive a ratio of 3 females to 3 males, but again im not sure, how do you tell the difference between sexs?

thanks

ohh wait a minute ive re-read fishladys post.. 'fertilised after laying' wonder why mine are so fat still..?

Zebra Danio females are generally larger and more rounded than males, even when not full of eggs. Egg laying fish don't become pregnant. Eggs mature in the female during which time she will become more rounded than usual. When the eggs are mature enough to be fertilised, they are released into the tank and then the male fertilises them. Danios tend to spawn very frequently, usually first thing in the morning. It won't do them any harm

If you keep an eye out when you're doing a gravel vac or when you're cleaning out your filter you're likely to spot the odd danio fry now and again without having to resort to breeding hundreds of them in a seperate tank. They look a bit like half an eyelash. I managed to raise a couple of danio fry last year doing this and then sticking them in a spawning net within the big tank.

Anyone got any suggestions as to why she didn't seem to be laying any eggs??

There aren't that many reasons. The main reason for female Danios hanging on to eggs is simply a lack of males. Danio spawning is quite vigorous (almost looks aggressive) and that stimulates egg release.

She may not have been egg-bound, just quite likely given the info you supplied. If there were any other symptoms beyond swollen abdomen and lethargy it may have been a bacterial infection or just plain old age. Was there any sign of white or clear poo, heavy breathing, redness anywhere at all on the fish? Were any of here scales lifting (so she looked like a pinecone)? Was there swelling anywhere other than the abdominal area?

Oh dear. Found another Rose Danio dead this evening when I got. Showing 0/0/30 so I did a 50% water change to be safe. Had a swollen stomach like the other, but this one only started to swell since the other died.

None of the fish are showing any signs of distress, all feeding okay, none are gulping at the surface, even the oto's are fine?

What are the tank pH and hardness reading? What do you feed them? Any idea how old they are - I'm pretty suire they were inherited with the tank weren't they?