Gravid guppies & death

Question
Chris,

I have a 20 gallon tank all guppies. Several gravid females. I had one which I purchased about a week ago. Today as I was doing a partial water change I noticed the fish had swollen like a balloon. I only buy gravid females if I can so I was not really surprised.

I finished my water change, installed the breeding net and put her in. Within three hours she was dead. A very amateurish necropsy found no fry, a female eggs.

What could have caused her death? Is it something I can avoid with the rest of the gravid fish (there are about four more that have been in the tank 3-4 weeks).

Thanks,

Sharon

Answer
Hi Sharon;

Poor thing. I think it probably had dropsy. There are many causes for this condition and they are usually not curable. Unless the other fish are stressed and weakened it is unlikely they would be affected by it.  They are usually isolated cases and other fish are just fine. Here is an article about it;

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/articles/article24.html

At Your Service;
Chris Robbins