Help Please Dead Platy Autopsy Photos (please do not look if they could upset you)

[sparkypenguin]

Hi all,

I've just found one of my fish lying dead upside down on the gravel and I am hoping that someone may be able to spot why.
I had 4 female platys and all looked OK, the only difference being the one that has died was not as fat as the other 3 but I put that down to it not being pregnant.
It seemed to die very quickly as I am fairly sure it was swimming quite happily earlier on.
All of my other fish look fine and as far as I know I have lost no other fish, although I do have approx. 30-40 fry in the tank so impossible to know for certain.

I checked my water 2 days ago and I got zero Ammonia / Nitrite and 5 Nitrate and my PH was 7.5 which is normal for my tank.
I water change every day around 7% using prime.
Water temp around 25c.
I've just checked and all of the above still the same.

The only changes to the tank I have made in the last week are as follows..
Last Sunday 2 types of live plants added, one of which has been almost totally eaten by the fish.
Last Sunday removal of some plastic plants and bog wood so I could remove a male platy that was bullying the female platys.
Thursday external filter clean in the water that was in the external filter at the time, this did result in a bloom of stuff coming out of the underwater spray bar when I reconnected the filter. I think these were bit of dead water louse as I have lots of these in the tank. I believe that the insects themselves are harmless to fish?

I have carried out an autopsy on the fish to see if any fry could be saved and to see if I could spot anything out of the ordinary.
I found no fry and could not see anything wrong but I have uploaded some photo's in case any one can spot anything.
I checked and it appeared that nothing was stuck in its throat but could it be that it has not been eating for a while and hence this is why it was much slimmer than the others?
Do the gills look OK, they seem a bit red but that it based on no knowledge whatsoever.
The photos of the dead fish are below so please do not look if you are squeamish or easily upset by such things....

Thanks for any help.

 

[Colin_T]

If fish are noticeably skinny, they can have gill flukes or intestinal round/ thread worms. However, the intestinal worms can usually be seen as thin red hair like things in the fish's intestine.

Gill flukes can cause fish to lose weight and condition, and cause the gills to become pale. The fish in the picture has very pale gills (they should be red) and might have been suffering from a lack of blood caused by gill flukes.

Neither intestinal worms or gill flukes will kill fish quickly. They are parasites that drink the fish's blood and weaken the fish over a course of months.

------------------------
This fish might have had a heart attack or stroke. It might have been stressed out from the removal of the wood and you chasing a fish around the tank a few days before. It's a bit hard to say and it could have been any number of things.

Generally it's easier to identify a problem on a live fish, rather than a dead one, especially if you don't have a microscope and reference book to compare what you see under the lens.

 

[sparkypenguin]

Hi @Colin_T

Thanks for the info.
Seemed OK then next thing dead so maybe it was a heart attack or stroke.
Thankfully no more deaths of any sort since then and all of my fish seem to be ok.
So hopefully just a rare one off.

Mark.