Lost my male apisto unexpectedly and can't tell why. Any help? Does anyone else just lose a fish sometimes and not know why?
Hi everyone,
I have a 20 gallon (UNS 60U) that I set up in September. It's my 3rd planted tank, so I like to think that I've learned a lot about the hobby and have a good idea of how to provide a good home for my fish, but I just lost my male apisto agassizii fire red this morning. I'm pretty bummed. He was in the tank with a female apisto agassizii fire red, 18 cardinals, 3 ottos, 1 blue-eye bristlenose, and 5 amanos. All of the livestock have been in there for a while now and have previously been doing great. The tank is heavily planted, I do 1/2 RO 1/2 tap water water changes (30% weekly, the 1/2 RO and 1/2 tap is what my excellent LFS uses and I got him from there), and I feed a varied diet (frozen brine shrimp, blood worms, daphnia, high quality flake, pellet, algae wafers).
I'm just trying to figure out what went wrong and what caused his death. Starting about a week ago, I had started seeing him less, but I was hoping that he and his lady were spending more time in a cave in the back of the tank that I can't really see. Then, yesterday I come home from work and he's looking terrible: swimming near the top of the tank, not swimming well, sometimes going vertical, etc. I watch him super closely (LFS was closed and I don't have a hospital tank, so there wasn't really anything to do), and eventually he finds his way to the front/middle of the tank at the bottom (flow is pretty low down there), and just rests pretty much on top of the plants/substrate. I fed some daphnia in case he was constipated, but he didn't eat anything. Tested water 0/0/30, pH 6.5 (stable). He stayed there overnight. I woke up and he was flipped upside down and barely moving. I decided to take him out and end the suffering.
Here's what he looked like yesterday:
Anyone have any thoughts on what might have happened? I couldn't see many changes on him. He definitely was paler than usual and flaring his fins a lot. He has that little spot on his dorsal fin. It was white and possibly fuzzy? I didn't see any other major spots, fin rot, eye changes, no sunken belly, etc. The spot doesn't look big or nasty enough to be fatal does it? I was going to try to get a hospital tank and treat with antifungals today, but it was too late by this morning. The female was always larger than the male, but I only saw a tiny bit of them picking on each other. Maybe she stressed him out more than I realized? Idk.
So anyways, I'd love all of your advice on what this might have been caused by? Do you all experience seemingly random fish deaths in your tanks even after years in the hobby? Thanks everyone. RIP Remy. Sorry buddy, I'll miss ya.
Posted Jan 6, 2022, 3:53 AM UTC
do you have any experience with them mating i think my female may be guarding eggs atm same breed
Yes it is. I have a female who is bigger than the male (she was when I got them). Might she have bullied him to death in guarding the eggs??
could be possible i know they get very aggressive during mating. i just got mine but have researched them a good bit and my female seems to be guarding some eggs at the moment. she scares off any other r fish that comes into her corner of the tank however i haven’t seen any aggression towards the male a whole lot. with that being said all fish are different and i heard the female will get mad when the male goes around the eggs
Damn, I didn't know that about them. I did think they had maybe paired up and the female is pretty bright yellow, so I guess it's possible. There aren't really any other fish in the tank that would go where there cave is, so it's hard to say if she would chase anyone else away.