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Ammonia = 0, Nitrite = 0, PH = 7.8, Water Temp. 82

A long story very short. This fish like one other cichlid I have has been living in a smaller 10 gal by itself while I set up a proper 50 gal. habitat.

Well, 30 minutes ago it up and died; I literally watched it. I fed like usual about two hours ago and this fish was swimming around and eating like normal. There are no outward signs of disease or stress. The water parameters have not changed since I set up the tank about 5 months ago. This fish has been living there happily since then. What could cause this to happen?

FWIW the other cichlid is living within the same water parameters and both tanks recieved the same weekly maintenance.

Any help in understanding this is much appreciated. Thanks.


Last edited by Iron Mike at 22-Jul-2005 19:19

I'm not totally sure what could have happened, but let's look at these things, maybe they might help:

1. Have you sprayed anything near the tank recently? Is it possible something got into the food? Did you wash your hands before feeding him? (I know I sound like mom, did you wash your handssorry) Anyone of those could have caused a contamination in the tank...and when you washed your hands did you rinse them thoroughly?

2. Is there a possibility the heat malfunctioned? Could the little guy (I know they aren't that little) have done like one of my bettas didhe really thought the heater needed to be spawned with and welltry to uh do the deed with said heaterthus burning himself severly:%)

3. Is there any possibility of a lose wire maybe coming in contact and have a bout of electricity go through the tank?

4. Can you tell us (if you actually witnessed it) what happened when he died? Was he breathing heavily? Did he just freeze up? Twitchy suddenly? Anything of that nature might help.

Now there is no guarantee that we will ever know what happened, but maybe we can figure it out...for instance the betta...no more heaters in that tank

Sorry about the loss, I know it's hard, heidi

"I've got a great ambition to die of exhaustion rather than boredom." Thomas Carlyle

Thanks Heidi, I ran through a similar troubleshooting list but for the life of me can't figure it out. It does not appear to be an electrical device issue. The food on the other hand I'm not convinced about nor am I willing to test it on another tank.

To answer your question about the death, yes the fish actually just froze up after swimming eratically for about 5 seconds. No rapid breathing of any sort. I do wonder if he sucked up some substrate while feeding though. I didn't cut him open to find out.

I'm doing some tank maintenance this week and I will be turning it into a Betta tank to put into my 4 y/o daughters room. She's pretty excited about being able to pick this fish out herself.

If you come up with any othe theories I'd love o hear them. Thanks again.

Its possible that there were no external factors that contributed to the fishes death. I'm sure like humans fish can suffer strokes/heart failure. Sounds like you maintain the tanks pretty well, and for a seemingly healthy fish to suddenly up and die like that makes me think it wasnt something in the environment.

Sorry you lost your fish.

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Before you criticize someone walk a mile in their shoes. That way you're a mile away and you have their shoes.