# Distended belly



## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I don't know what else to call it but my fish have what looks like a distended belly. They are not fat, just regular sized but instead of being a nice silhouette they have a distended belly that dips below their abdominal line. It's like that on 2 of the 5 that came in, and one of the others looks like it might be slightly off in the same way. 

I just got them in and I hope they are okay. They are blue tetra's and they came overnight from Tucson to Prescott via UPS. I think there was an oxygen issue as I have a small one that still is clinging to the top of the water. It was fine when it was feeding time... swam after it really well. So I hope it ends up making it through the night. 

So far they haven't colored up too much, but as they just came in this afternoon I am sure that is not a problem. Fins were pretty torn up in the process, one of the bigger ones is quite the little chaser! Those look fine overall, just need to grow back a bit LOL.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

The ones with the bulges are the ones that died. The other ones lost their bulges and were not all that bulged in the first place. No idea what caused it


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## TheOldSalt (Jan 28, 2005)

I would guess they maybe got bloated from a loss of air pressure in flight, but that should have probably killed them.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I don't know if they were flown or not. It's Tucson to Prescott, easily handled in an overnight ground. I don't have the box to know for sure and I didn't think to check. I was surprised at the little water that was there. Maybe 3 inches worth. Even with it being ground, there is a deal of altitude change along the way. Tucson is about 2300ft Phoenix is at 1100-1200ft and Prescott is 5000-6000, with my house being about 5500ft.


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

When bags come in, all of them leaking, I wonder if they didn't "pop" from low outside-the-bag pressure. Fish fly all the time, but I never found any good info about it.


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