Something very wrong with my fish

Hi prof, there is something very wrong with one of my fish. It looks like a miniture bunch of grapes burst thru the side of him/her. A few of them fell off after removing him/her from the tank. Here are a couple photos. I figure he/she isnt going to make it but will keep him/her for a while just incase, not in the main tank of course.

 

Hi Sailing_Derrick,

That is a female zebra fish and what you are seeing are eggs. Zebrafish females produce eggs on an ongoing basis in large amounts and need to get rid of them or else they get into a condition called "egg-bound". What this means is that develop such full bellies that these can rupture. What you are seeing is exactly that, in other words, the belly of the fish has popped. What this means is that you have a fairly large injury there and it is doubtful weather she is going to recover.

If you keep zebrafish, it is important to keep a shoal of them with males amongst them and then to create some areas where they are spawn to just simply get rid of the eggs. Fine plants or aquatic mosses, or even just coir fibre placed somewhere near the surface of the tank will work well. Even if you do not breed them, the other fishes in the tank will be grateful about the fish eggs and eat them.

Kind regards,

Dirk