What Causes A Fish To Just Die? No Cause

[mike_nofx]

My tank has been fully cycled for 3-4 weeks now. I fully stocked it (22 Fish) as soon as it had cycled. All 22 fish survived until today. One angel died!

Ammonia 0, nitrite 0, nitrate <20

I have 6 angels in the tank, all small ones.

I dont know why this angel died. There was no warning, it wasnt sick for a while then died... I just looked at the tank early this morning, all seemed fine. Then late this afternoon, 1 dead angel!

It cant have been dead all that long as the bristlenoses hadnt got into the carcass yet.

Any ideas? (i know how hard it is to diagnose like this!) but maybe there is a common problem that may cause this.

100 US Gal. 6 Clown Loaches, 6 Angels, 3 Silver Dollars, 2 BGK's, 2 Bristlenoses, 2 Khuli Loaches, 1 Neon.
(Neon was in a bigger pack in a different tank, but all the other neons died) I dont want anymore neons.
Tank is Un-planted, so i try keep the Nitrates low with water changes.

Thanks

 

[Teelie]

First guess, stress. Second, an internal, undiagnosed bacterial infection or parasite. I really have no idea. I've had a string of single fish deaths recently myself. No obvious cause, no other fish sick or dead. Just one day every few months or so a fish will die. This is a fter 3 years in the current set up with regular water changes, no ammonia, nitrite, etc. Just one of those strange unexplainable events.

Your tank is also going to be overstocked. The BGK's will grow a minimum of 2 feet and will eat some of your smaller fish once they're large enough. Silver Dollars get huge too, and should be in a group of 5 or more. Kuhlis like groups too but they can do okay in pairs. Otherwise, I really don't see any problems outright with the tank as I doubt any of your fish are adult sized yet.

 

[mike_nofx]

All fish are very small.

Possible tank upgrade/additional tank in the future.

I actually have 3 khulis, but 1 disappeared! The 3 khulis were in a different tank previously and the same one disappeared i didnt see it for over a month. Then when i put the Khulis into this current tank, i fully stripped the other tank and the missing khuli was buried and alive, he didnt come out until the water in the tank was down to about 1", and i was digging through the gravel with my hand when he popped out!. But i hadnt seen him for weeks!!

I havent seen him since i put him in this tank. 3-4 weeks ago!

 

[Teelie]

They'll do that. I have/had 6 in a 10g and did a search the other day. Found 5 of them but not the 6th. No remains either. It's possible it just buried in the substrate or is hiding out of sight. Kuhlis tend to be masters of hiding.

 

[TwoTankAmin]

Fish do have heart attacks and strokes just like people. A couple of years back I lost one of my larger prized clown loaches suddenly and w/o warning. I froze it and sent it to a fish expert for an autopsy. He found nothing and concluded one of those two things was the leikey cause.

 

[SamUK]

i didnt think you were meant to keep 2 BGKs in one tank?


correct me if im wrong (please do so i can get another lol) but i thought cos of the way they use electric pulses to see, having 2 in a small space can screw them up and confuse them.


as for the angel.

probably bulled by the others or an internal infection so there was no visible signs.

keep a close eye on your other fish.

 

[mike_nofx]

Another angel died! So far both angels which died have been real small. i bought 6 angels all at once, 2 Black ones, 2 silver and black striped ones and 2 whitey-see-throughy ones. So 2 of each colour.

all were similarly sized. but 1 of each colour (1 black, 1 striped and 1 white) all grew much faster that the others.

I noticed the clown loaches i have in my tank are all covered in white stuff, like specks, or dots. Im not sure if this is ich/whitespot as i have never had this before. (I also posted about my sick loaches in the emergencies section, along with a picture).

The second angel which died was stuck to the plastic grate of the filter inlet tube. Maybe he/she died because of the filter sucking it in? or maybe it just died close to the filter and was sucked to it.

So whats the likely cause? heart attack? same reason loaches are sick? or filter inlet?

Thanks!

Ps. Im real scared of all my fish getting sick. i hope they dont all die!!!

 

[nadajdui]

Just last week I had all 6 silvertip tetras in my quarantine tank die. No idea why, no signs of anything at all. So it's likely you will never know what is killing your fish. You need to do a large water change if you haven't already, and maybe take some pictures of your fish with the white on them, or describe them better so someone can give you a better hand. Good luck.

 

[Bloo]

Looking at this thread, ICH (whitespot) was the cause.