I've got a story with a happy ending. I bought some live food (bloodworms, I guess you call it) for my tanks and offered some to tetras as well. Those pygmy neons were the most active hunters! Cardinals also were trying to bite more than they could swallow. In some time they all made pigs of themselves and my tiny teenage black tetras were looking like balloons!
The next morning I came up to feed them and got a shock having discovered that one of my favourite cardinals was floating belly up in the weeds! At first I thought he'd kicked the bucket, but then I looked closer and realised that he was quite alive and even looking at me. He was obviously in pain, but there was nothing I could do! He didn't lose colour, but his belly was swallen so that the red line was not consistent and he looked like a very fat neon.
Nothing doing, I had to go to work, so I just left him there, as my quarantine tank needed preheating before I could place him there.
When I came up to that tank in the afternoon I discovered that he was already swimming but in jerky movements keeping his tail up. In a quarter of an hour as I was watching he freed himself of all ... gas he had in his swollen belly. It was so strange to see tiny bubbles come out of his body...
He is alive and well, sparkling turquoise blue and red and swimming in correct position. We all were very relieved to see him recover!
Was that condition caused by the bloodworms I gave them? Should I stop giving them to tetras?
but if it happens again i would stay away from the worms. :D
