My female dottyback just died
 

My female orchid dottyback just died after being in my tank for 2 years. I'm not sure if she was egg bound or had a tumour of some kind. Can fish be egg bound?

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ttyback007.jpg

Sorry to hear your lose :(

It's possible....... but I think unlikely. I know that when female freshwater angels have eggs and there is no male around........ they will just lay them.

I had 2 females do that together (looked like a breeding pair) and I though I would get babies :(

Cheers,
Vic [veng68]

Sorry I should of said that I have a male as well and for the record he doesn't look anywhere near that round

*edit* and they have been "nesting" for the last year and a half although I've never actually seen the eggs because they are in a cave

Aww, sorry to hear that Marie.

I've never heard of egg binding in fish, as the eggs they produce lack a hard shell but I suppose anything is possibe....it's also possible she was quite old, unless she was captive bred? Was the pot belly recent, or was it common when she was laying eggs?

Having seen your system it certainly isn't lack of good husbandry!!

She was an ora captive bred and i don't think she was that old unless they only live 3 or so years. She's always had a round belly just not quite this extreme and there wasn't a mark on her

Here's another pic that I took when I was netting her body out of the tank
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v2...ttyback003.jpg

Try doing an autopsy, CSI style, to see if there are any eggs in that belly.

Need a scalpel? take pictures!

I thought about doing a necropsy but i don't have anything small and sharp enough to do a clean enough job of it. So she went to the great porcelain fish heaven

Aww that sucks Marie. I wonder if she had an intestinal blockage maybe?

Whats really sad is the male is cruising around looking for her this morning