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I found one of my female petricola's, that I had thought was gravid, dead when I went to feed them. I was curious about the swelling, and cut open the belly. Apparently it was blood, not eggs, though there were a few yellow eggs visible. Any idea what may have been the cause?

Hey,

:( - really sad news :(.

Did you net her in last few days?
I'm asking because if she got advanced dropsy and you net her you could unintentionally damage internal organs and that's why blood appeared.

Regards.

None of the fish have been netted since being moved to the spawning tank weeks ago. I used a large fine-mesh net to catch them, after removing the rocks. I suppose it is possible an injury occured before they were moved from the community tank. One of the praecox rainbows in that tank died about a week ago, she had been beat up pretty badly. No idea who the culprit was though, the other 9 rainbows are fine.