“unexplained fish death” seems to be a real problem we all suffer from… some fish species seem like survivors, but with most there is a high initial death rate, but surviving fish may live on for years… it isn’t just newbie mistakes, or not matching fish’s preferred parameters… it happens to the most anal, experienced fish keepers, as well as new fish keepers… me, personally, I have fish I bought the normal recommended size group, only to have all die except 1 or 2, and those live for several years after their conspecifics have all died…
it’s hard to start kids or new people into the hobby with the death and persistence that is required to get a long term functioning tank… the old story of parents going out and buying a new gold fish to replace the dead one, while the kids are in school, to spare their children…
someone should figure out how to cure “UFD”
persistence is sometimes a bad trait… I’ve been trying lately to get a breeding colony of sail fin mollys going, and my death toll is 20-25 fish… while similar fish seem to be thriving in the same tank… it surely must be the mollys… how many must die, to find a few who will survive long enough to breed???
here are two of my examples of “UFD” a rummy nose, and cardinal tetra forced to hang out together, as all their previous friends have all died… yet they each continued to live on, for at least a year, going on two, after the rest all slowly but surely died…
often this is noticed with fish that have been in the hobby for a long time , like the two above… not sure if the genetics have been played out, over all the years or if it’s a side effect of some of the hormones used to force breeding in fish being cultivated on farms, or some sort of evil planned obsolescence, to increase sales, or something else, but if we could figure it out, I’m sure the hobby would rebound nicely…
it’s hard to start kids or new people into the hobby with the death and persistence that is required to get a long term functioning tank… the old story of parents going out and buying a new gold fish to replace the dead one, while the kids are in school, to spare their children…
someone should figure out how to cure “UFD”
persistence is sometimes a bad trait… I’ve been trying lately to get a breeding colony of sail fin mollys going, and my death toll is 20-25 fish… while similar fish seem to be thriving in the same tank… it surely must be the mollys… how many must die, to find a few who will survive long enough to breed???
here are two of my examples of “UFD” a rummy nose, and cardinal tetra forced to hang out together, as all their previous friends have all died… yet they each continued to live on, for at least a year, going on two, after the rest all slowly but surely died…
often this is noticed with fish that have been in the hobby for a long time , like the two above… not sure if the genetics have been played out, over all the years or if it’s a side effect of some of the hormones used to force breeding in fish being cultivated on farms, or some sort of evil planned obsolescence, to increase sales, or something else, but if we could figure it out, I’m sure the hobby would rebound nicely…
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