I would personally say you way over stocked a new tank to begin with. I’d have only taken 4-6 danios. It can take weeks (months) to cycle a tank fully and grow enough bacteria to keep things healthy.

My guess with the swordtail is it probably died due to the ammonia spike (nitrogen cycle for new tanks) and more than likely the other fish have eaten it. I’d advice keeping the lid on at all times too as fish do jump out of water. I have a Cory catfish who darts to the surface of the water from time to time and if I didn’t have a lid on she’s be out she has that much power in her dart! Lol

It all depends what other fish you like the look of too. If it were my tank I’d either add more platys/ mollys or get a nice shoal of 6-8 tetras.

I think from another post I have a cardinal full of eggs. How long do fish hold their eggs in the belly before they’ll expel them? She’s huge.

Hi thanks for replying. It’s definitely crept up over months. So maybe over feeding but she didn’t go for any daphnia last night (gave in case she was constipated or the pea I put in). Spoke to a guy at work today who thinks she’s egg bound and suggest salt bath. So I got some Epsom salts and gave her a 12 minute bath and put her back. Not going to feed tonight though just in case it helps. Although the guy said if she is egg bound and can’t expel them or reabsorb them then it’ll prob kill her eventually. Poor thing. She copes with salt bath well tho.

Thanks again for advice. Really appreciate it.

One of my cardinal tetras has become extremely bloated. Or is she full of eggs? The others are fine. She’s always had a larger belly but seems very big the last two days.

40 litre tank
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 10.

Fed on hikari micro granules. Frozen daphnia, cyclops and artemia. Sometimes flake. Once or twice a day. Small amount. But hands up I prob over feed.

Hi. I’ve had a tropical 40 litre tank set up and running for nearly 2 years. I have two corys one bronze one albino. I did have a third bronze Cory but lost him a few months ago due to a fungus.

(I’m currently treating my tank with melafix to treat a very mild fin rot for one of my cardinal tetras and its working great. But the last few days I’ve noticed my bronze Cory will do an odd flick on the sand substrate. This morning she did it again but a couple in quick succession and did a mad swim up to the surface and dart back down (I know the surface break is normal behaviour for corys). But what is the flicking? There are no signs of fin rot, fungus, white spot etc - could this just be a way corys sometimes “play” ??? The other one isn’t doing it though? They’re both females.

My ammonia is 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate around 50