Death by Natural Causes

[pahansen]

Hi. I had my first fish die today <sniff>. I don't know how to tell if a fish (absent of obvious symptoms) has died of natural causes. Can anyone tell me the behavior of a fish that has died of natural causes or poor breeding (as opposed to disease)?

For more details of my sad fish story, or to reply about this specific case, please see my other post at http/www.fishforums.net/index.php?act=ST&f=49&t=76356

Thanks,
Pamela

 

[black angel]

my guess would be that the other male being aggressive saw the tank as his and basically scared the other one to death, by chasing it. most male gouramis like to have their own territory and any other male is seen as a threat. some can live together and some cant. how big is the tank?

 

[pahansen]

It's a 20 gallon planted tank. What you say makes sense, and I was kind of wondering if he'd just been "picked on to death", especially since he didn't grow at the same rate as other gourami. The weird thing is that it took 6 months to get to this point. But the smaller gourami was definitely more shy and the larger more territorial, even when they were the same size.

Sad as I am about the situation, I'd much rather this be the case than some "mystery disease" floating around in the tank. The remaining gourami leaves everybody else alone.