Sudden Death

[saucryognathus]

I had this senegalus for quite a while now, almost a year, and he was always healthy and active as any other. He was also very friendly and liked swiming around when i was cleaning, feeding, etc.

I raised him since he was around the size of my pinky and he was almost 20cm now. And it was all normal (eating, swimming, doing all he and the others always did) until last night.

I went to feed them normally, and he seemed to eat okay, it was late evening, 7pm or something, and by the time i was setting everything to go to bed (we had christams eve celebrations so it was around 2am) he seemed to be floating a little more than usual, and somewhat struggling to rest at the bottom?

It looked unusual, but not that much since he always followed me around whenever i passed by the tank, so i thought it was nothing. This morning he was floating on his back and dead.

Last night he seemed to be defecating when he was floating and now his anus (idk what they are called in fish, cloaca?) Is red and weird. There is an area near his chest that looks a little red too, but its very light. Aside from that, everything is fine, water quality, temperature, last (weekly) water change was almost week ago i doubt that would be it, no signs of bites or fights (his tankmates are 2 other polys, a florida gar and a pleco) or anything. I wonder if the fireworks people shoot would be something but i highly doubt it would do anything for the fish at all.

Need help to atleast try to identify what it was? He was very dear to me and im still struggling to accept his desth. Everything is fine, i dont know what couldve caused it.

Will be attaching pics.

Thanks in advance!

 

[FJB]

Sorry for your loss. I don’t really have any suggestions, hopefully others will.

 

[troublesum]

Did you have a lot of company for Christmas, friends, family? i was thinking maybe someone dropped something in the tank. i have seen and heard things like this before especially during the holidays.
Sorry for your loss!

 

[jjohnwm]

Sorry to read this. I posted recently about a similar occurrence with a Jelly Cat, Lophiosilurus apurensis, which I had owned for less than 4 years. One day it went from appearing and behaving completely normal and healthy to stone dead within an hour. I was in the room the whole time, and there was no sudden burst of unusual activity to attract my attention to him at the end. No peculiarities of conditions, water parameters, nothing unusual...just a dead fish. A ham-fisted necropsy provided no immediately-obvious answers. Just a dead fish...and a seriously frustrated and angry and disappointed aquarist.

You investigate what you can...as long as there is not some obvious problem or irregularity that can be pointed to as the cause of death...some sort of tank crash or other external influence...there's not much point in berating yourself about it. If nothing is discovered, then...you move on.

I've said before and will repeat now: s**t happens. It happens even to people; we have all heard of folks who have suffered sudden catastrophic conditions like aneurysms that kill them instantly with no prior suggestions of a problem. No reason to believe that identical or similar issues cannot arise with fish and other animals. It's just luck of the draw if a fish selected for your tank is subject to some internal ticking time bomb like this that surprises you at some future point.

 

[danotaylor]

Sorry mate, that’s a sucky situation for sure.
What do you, or did you, feed it the eve before you found it floating? I ask cause the translucent area up by its breast area looks as though there may have been a perforation internally. If it was a live fish perhaps a spine pierced it as it was being swallowed? Just a thought

 

[Backfromthedead]

Sorry for your loss. I too am interested in the stomach contents, perhaps an amateur autopsy could've revealed something there.