Help! One of my fish just died! Why?? Need Help!!

ValRasbora

ValRasbora

Superstar Fish
#1
May 2, 2009
1,202
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0
Atlantic Canada
#1
Help!
One of my cardinal tetras just died. It's stuck to the filter pump, sort of bloated and the colors are faded to a creamy white with pale red stripes.
It's like a disease or something!! This EXACT thing happened to a goldfish I had a few years ago.
The only odd thing I noticed was 2 days ago it wasn't schooling with my other fish, and I couldn't find him in the tank. Although he showed up shortly.
What happened? I need help before all my fish die!!
Help is MUCH appreciated.
 

homebunnyj

homebunnyj

Superstar Fish
#2
Jul 13, 2005
1,299
4
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Western NC
#2
Well, you know the drill by now... post up ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, water change schedule, anything unusual going on lately, like if you've been messing with the pH or whatever else you can think of.... We can't help any at all without some information to go on.

Sorry about your fish... cardinal tetras are so pretty.
 

ValRasbora

ValRasbora

Superstar Fish
#3
May 2, 2009
1,202
0
0
Atlantic Canada
#3
I haven't been messing with the pH or anything...
I recently changed the water, but I was going to do it again today, but I need to get some other water- I have well water, it's too hard or something so we get other water.
Yeah it might have been from old age, I don't know- I had that one for about a year, and who knows how old it was when I bought it??
Actually when I was taking it out I noticed that it still had a faded blue stripe.
I don't have a test tube (mine broke :( ) so I hope to get another VERY soon.
 

misterking

misterking

Superstar Fish
#4
Aug 12, 2008
1,124
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Manchester, UK
www.facebook.com
#4
The faded colour is typical of a dead fish. Same principle for humans going "white" when we die. It happens to all fish and usually not very long after they pass away, but as already said we'll be able to help you more when you get your new test tube so you can check your parameters.

Edit: Having just thought about it, did you do the water change with the hard well water? As far as I'm aware cardinals are quite fussy when it comes to water and generally don't deal with hard water very well. However if this is the case it's odd that only the one died.

It could be any number of things though. One of my neon tetras once died from a little fishy heart attack :| wasn't pleasent to watch!
 

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ValRasbora

ValRasbora

Superstar Fish
#5
May 2, 2009
1,202
0
0
Atlantic Canada
#5
No I'd never change water with well water- I know it's really not good.
Once I did that with goldfish and they only lived like 4 months- not pretty.
I also noticed that he wasn't really bloaty, it was just because I was looking at him at an odd angle.
I really think it was old age, because I've been keeping a very close eye on the fish for the last few days- I think they're OK, but I definitely won't do any thing odd for a while just in case!
I'll keep you all updated.
 

jo3olous

jo3olous

Large Fish
#6
Aug 6, 2008
909
1
0
Philadelphia, PA
#6
ValRasbora said:
No I'd never change water with well water- I know it's really not good.
Once I did that with goldfish and they only lived like 4 months- not pretty.
I also noticed that he wasn't really bloaty, it was just because I was looking at him at an odd angle.
I really think it was old age, because I've been keeping a very close eye on the fish for the last few days- I think they're OK, but I definitely won't do any thing odd for a while just in case!
I'll keep you all updated.
Click to expand...
If you think you know what it is, why did you make a thread freaking out about it? I don't think it was old age. It was probably weak or injured from going through your tank cycle or the era in which you did not know how to maintain a tank, shortening it's life span.
 

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