Having A Bad Fish Day

[This Old Spouse]

As I was gazing into my 55g contemplating a water change, I noticed something behind the filter intake. As I looked closer, I realized it was one of the trillis, long dead. I immediately took him out and started counting. There were six originally. That's when I saw another little guy on his side, valiantly trying to stay alive. These were the two with the worst case of what I think was ammonia poisoning.

So I set up a QT tank as fast as I could and got the little guy into it. After an hour or so I determined he just wasn't going to make it, so with a heavy heart I euthanized him. Of course I immediately did a big water change. I used cooler water, hoping to spur the other trillis to spawn. I also spent another hour trying to corral the rest of the leaden pleco poo off the tank bottom.

From there I thought I'd check on my crabitat. I just did a w/c yesterday, but I like to see how everyone is doing. That's when I see there is no sign of the male fiddler. Nowhere. Asked hubby to help me look. No luck. Even took apart the filter, where the female has been known to hide out, but he wasn't there. Which means, of course, that he escaped and one of two things will happen. A. My cat will be quite happy with his latest seafood meal, or B. We'll find his dried up little body when we move.

I barely have the heart to look at my third tank with the male guppies and cories. I can see from here that everyone seems to be swimming around happily, but I'll hold off for a closer look until this evening.

Sigh.

 

[ellejay]

Aww, sorry to hear that. At least you will have a happy cat. On a lighter note, I love the term "crabitat"!

 

[eaglesaquarium]

I'm sorry to hear about that. I found a harlequin pinned to my filter yesterday morning. There were very few signs of trouble before that. This one had being keeping to the bottom of the tank at night, but had been coming up during the day and feeding regularly. I don't know if it was stress from the zebra or what... A 50% water change later and everything seems fine again... Hopefully my dad can maintain the remaining fish while I am away for 3 weeks. Before this, I had lost 3 fish, but one was diseased when I got it, and finally passed. The other two were newly added and couldn't last a week in the tank, I chalked those losses up to weak fish. This most recent loss has me a bit disheartened.


I feel your pain TOS. Were there any signs prior?

 

[Harlequins]

Sorry to hear about the tri's & fiddler was these the two tri's with red gills?

I hope the rest are ok...

 

[thisguyek]

boy... sounds like a day in my fish tank! hope everything comes around.

 

[This Old Spouse]

Sorry to hear about the tri's & fiddler was these the two tri's with red gills?

I hope the rest are ok...

Thanks to everyone for your kind thoughts. Yes, it was the two trillis with the red gills. I suspect they weren't in good shape to begin with. When we started thinking about it, turns out the fish we get from this LFS generally have issues. 5 out of 6 mollies died that we got from there, and half the von Rio tetras died, with the rest of them being deformed (curved spines).

Now my female fiddler is depressed. Honestly. She hasn't eaten a thing since the male disappeared. I'm torn between letting her live out her life alone, rehoming her, or getting another male.

Going to a good LFS today. A four-hour round trip!