Is this what I think it is?

[aquacosm]

My sweet cacatuoides girl has the bloat.

Diet: blood worms, daphnia, fluval bug bites

Ammonia:0
Nitrates: 15ppm
Nitrite: 0
Temp: 79 F

Still interested in food, still out in the open.. I've just been doing water changes every other day about 10 to 15%.

any thoughts or shared experience would be welcome

 

[MacZ]

This is severe dropsy (a symptom of a systemic bacterial infection), which is basically acute kidney failure. Liquid starts filling the body cavity and tissue until the scales stick out. Also in this case there is a prolapse due to the pressure which will likely get an extra inflammation.

You can't do much about it. At this stage an antibiotic might completely take out the kidneys, epsom salt baths against the swelling are not worth it anymore either. The side effects might be lethal.

I'd do palliative care. Good food, good water, but don't expect the fish to bounce back from this. Will be over in the next 1-2 weeks. I'm sorry.

To prevent this in the future, we would need to know a bit more about the tank, your water and the like. There's a template in the Health-subforum you can fill out if you like, then the forum might help you optimize your tank for keeping Apistogramma. That's the best prevention you can do.

Oh and stop feeding bloodworms. They are often connected to cases of dead Apistogramma.

 

[Apistomaster]

I euthanize fish that are this sick. MacZ called it correctly...organ failure due to internal bacterial infection.
It simply isn't worth doing heroic treatments for incurable diseases and this case is one of those hopeless ones. Worse yet, it is acting as a reservoir of the disease alive or dead which can lead to other fishes contracting the disease especially those that munch on it's carcass.