Poor diet, lack of excercise, excess weight, genetics, breed type, sickness. Sometimes there is no know cause. All the conditions seen proper, and there are no known contributing factors, yet still it happens. Same with humans or all other animals. Occasionally you'll hear of someone who gets plenty of excercise, eats a low fat, low cholesterol diet, is not over weight, does not smoke, and had no family history, yet still he'll have a heart attack. Having said all of that, becoming egg bound is still extremely rare. All the books love to mention it, for the simple fact that it is one of the few conditions in chickens that when it does happen, is readily identifiable to the average person, even if it's after death. They have to put something in the chapter on diseases, and this one has so many opinions on how to recognize and treat it, that it takes up some good print space. Most other diseases or conditions have such vague or similar symptoms, that it's difficult to explain in writing how to tell one from another, and often you can't without lab testing. Frequently, the average person will blame egg binding as the cause of sickness or death, because a sick chicken is showing the signs according to the books. Sick or extremely stressed chicken almost always act in a similar way. They may become egg bound as a result of becoming weak from some other underlying cause, and that's more often the case than simple egg binding with no other factor. Prolapse is often confused with egg binding, and they are sometimes related, but in my experience, prolapse is much more common than simple egg binding.

No to tell without an autopsy. Since that is just not realistic with a $1 fish, I would say that petiolaris is on target. These things happen with aquariums. Such is the life of an aqua hobbyist. For what it's worth, I have a ton of platy's over the years. Some last a long time, some not so much. Only a few times one or two had some sort of symptom for a week or less then died. Most I just found randomly dead without warning.

You'll have to have an arborist look at the trees in person to be able to get any useful opinions about their structural integrity. Look for somebody that sells themselves as a consulting arborist or other tree expert as part of the package of services offered.

Fixing in what manner? Start taking soil back out? As much as I've said about him not responding to recent attempts at communication, in his defense the guy has a degree in forestry and I recall discussing at some length the pros and cons of putting soil against a tree and specifically asked him about it. He explained it all and assured me that the way he did it is fine and does not jeopardize the health of the tree. What you can't tell from either my descriptions or pictures is how it looked before. There was significant erosion within probably 8-9' of the tree in nearly all directions. Loads of large, exposed roots. So while all that was covered up, I just went out and checked and it appears that I'm seeing the original ground surface level right at the base of the tree. There has definitely been erosion since he did it. Right around the base, it looks to already be eroded to what it always used to look like - very dry, pebbly dirt. Like I said, there was a very significant slope that had to be graded. Even so, the lower side of the bed you see in the pic is significantly lower than the opposite side. I don't think there is a problem with the tree. I had him do alot of trimming on the maple as part of the whole job since it's really getting a bit too big for being as close to the pool as it is. The pic does not show the detail around the base. It undoubtedly looks like it's piled up higher against the tree than it really is. I'm not gonna worry about it. Actually, based on some quick research (since I had no idea what was meant by the "flare") I don't EVER remember seeing the flare on that maple. If it ever was visible, it was probably covered up in '89 when we had the pool put in. Once again, the entire area (including where the maple is) had to be graded to create as little slope down from the pool as possible. I basically always recall seeing a solid trunk right down to the ground level. So, if the tree has lasted nearly 20 years post-pool construction and landscaping, I would imagine it will continue on. I'd gladly ask this guy about it, IF I could ever get ahold of him!