My First Euthanization

[fishprotector]

I have just euthanized my Ellioti using clove oil. This was the first fish that I have ever had to do this to and it was quite upsetting. Around five weeks or so ago, exactly half of his face turned black (left hand side), from the head on view there was literally a line running vertically down his face through his mouth. This extended to the gills. I read up on this and apparantly it could have been one of two things. A bruise or nerve damage due to a trauma. As it did not clear, I would put money on it being nerve damage.

About three or so weeks ago, he received some damage to his left side and lost a few scales. This extended to the level of damage as in the pictures below. I did think that it was getting better, but over the past few days it has got worse and scales have been falling off in chunks. His fins have also started to become scraggy and rotten at the tips. My water is crystal clear, the tank is greatly over filtered and I carry out 40-50% water changes weekly (sometimes twice a week).

He generally became very reclusive and stopped eating. He was the top dog in the tank and chased other fish around quite a lot. All that I can think of is that one of them turned around and gave him what for. I had to do something as he was not himself at all and I was scared that he would pass what ever it was on to his tankmates (one of my pictus has started suffering from a very bad case of fungal finrot since Tuesday which I imagine is linked to this - currently treating with JBL Fungol which is working a dream).

Anyway here are a few pics. One of him in his glory days and a couple of the damage:

 

[creeker]

Sorry about the loss. Why such large and frequent water changes? Is the tank a little crowded? Do the water parameters dip between changes? Are you testing the water?

 

[boabmac63]

Buetiful fish but u did the right thing as he did look bad in the other photos is this a community fish never seem one before

 

[fishprotector]

Tank has been set up for nearly a year, but the stock was moved from a smaller tank to this one. Ammonia and nitrite are always zero, nitrates go up to between 15 and 25 weekly. Yes it is overstocked and my Pleco makes a right mess of the sand.

 

[boabmac63]

Sorry about the loss. Why such large and frequent water changes? Is the tank a little crowded? Do the water parameters dip between changes? Are you testing the water?

Its good to do frequent large water changes

 

[fishprotector]

Buetiful fish but u did the right thing as he did look bad in the other photos is this a community fish never seem one before

They are a member of the Firemouth family. They are meant to be less agressive, but I would beg to differ. I suppose it depends on the individual speciman though. If you are keeping CA & SA Cichlids, then yes they can be a community fish. Otherwise, not really.

 

[AshleyT]

Such a beautiful fish shame you had to let it go

 

[Blubble37]

aww shucks man! thats so sad!

 

[creeker]

Sorry about the loss. Why such large and frequent water changes? Is the tank a little crowded? Do the water parameters dip between changes? Are you testing the water?

Its good to do frequent large water changes

50% twice a week is a bit much, that's why I was asking. His response about the tank being a bit crowded and the pleco makes sense to me. I was trying to tie together the problem with the Eliotti and the Pictus. With the quality of the water I have here, a 50% change would probably wipe out my tanks. I have to keep it to 25% weekly, which keeps things in great shape. Not trying to discourage weekly maintenance, I was just wondering why he was doing basically a 100% change each week, and he explained why. If I did that, I would get ammonia burn which might resemble Fin Rot.

 

[fishprotector]

Sorry about the loss. Why such large and frequent water changes? Is the tank a little crowded? Do the water parameters dip between changes? Are you testing the water?

Its good to do frequent large water changes

50% twice a week is a bit much, that's why I was asking. His response about the tank being a bit crowded and the pleco makes sense to me. I was trying to tie together the problem with the Eliotti and the Pictus. With the quality of the water I have here, a 50% change would probably wipe out my tanks. I have to keep it to 25% weekly, which keeps things in great shape. Not trying to discourage weekly maintenance, I was just wondering why he was doing basically a 100% change each week, and he explained why. If I did that, I would get ammonia burn which might resemble Fin Rot.

No problems. I normally do water change weekly, only twice a week around once a month. It was 100% fungal fin fot, as there were (still are a few) cotton wool lumps of growth on its ragged fins and greatly shortened barbels.

 

[balajake]

Just saw the thread. He was a stunning boy and I'm sorry you lost him.

 

[fishprotector]

Thanks guys and girls. I know it was the best for him, but my heart has felt heavy since I did it. I had him since he was a baby and although he was a pain, he was one of my favourites.

 

[KISSfn]

Sorry for your loss...

 

[Dieses Madchen]

I'm sorry for your loss. I had to euthanize my female betta a week ago, as she had dropsy, couldnt swim and looked like a pinecone I feel your pain.

 

[Lufbramatt]

Sorry to hear this. Had to do my first one last night, a little syno catfish that had been really badly beaten up by one of the other fish, found it cowering behind the filter intake still breathing but when i moved the pipe to see what had happened most of his fins and a lot of the flesh had been eaten away from its tail. It couldn't swim and was just being blown around by the filter current, the other fish were circling and obviously saw it as a meal. Had to put it out of it's misery. Took me a long while to get my head around it and was a horrible experience but I knew it had to be done. Still quite upset about it today