not so much an emergency as a death..

My male swordtail looked odd last night and so i came online and did some perusing. His symptoms didnt match any of the diseases listed. He had a large pale stripe on one side of his body. I think it may be a burn but i am unsure.

Came upstairs this morning and found him dead under the tank heater. Am really upset cos he was one of my first fish (and first one to die).

His tankmates are(were) :

6 silver minnels
5 neon tetras
1 female swordtail
1 plec
7 guppies
3 platties

Tank water is a 15% change every week and a bit
Filter cleaned weekly

98L tank

erm cant think of anything else so can you look at the picture and say if thats any paticular disease/ailment?

by the way forgot, everyone else in the tank is fine. and i think my plec may have nibbled at my swordtail a bit while he was resting on the bottom..... )

Could he of burnt himself on the heater, does the heater have a guard on it.

the tank was a present from a friend ( i set it up two weeks before introducing fish) and she never mentioned needing a guard on the heater. It was a handme down setup and she says none of hers ever had terminal stupidity (such a sensitive girl)

i am gonna get a heater guard as soon as some funds have been scraped up. but none of the other fish hang around it as much as my swordtail did.

( i set it up two weeks before introducing fish)

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Hi there.

Sorry to hear about your loss

You didnt mention any water parameters (Ammonia, NitRITE and NitRATE).
I know it's all everyone raves on about, but it is an important factor when setting up new tanks.

If the tank was setup from scratch for just 2 weeks without fish, the tank wouldnt of been CYCLED
without using ammonia.
If the tank was setup before then and was fully cycled then i apologise and ignore what i said.

It may pay to post your water parameters here anyhow....

HTH

erm it was cycled with plants and snails but not fish. so i spose it isnt cycling but i only came to these forums after i introduced the fish. Everyone else is fine tho and being really active and have really bright colours.

I am not going to replace the swordtail for a couple of weeks tho

(he is buried in the garden ancient style with some fish flakes to eat in the afterlife)

(oh and has his own crocus bulb)

Thanks for your advice guys

Will get a water testing set soon

Surprised_Fishie said:

erm it was cycled with plants and snails but not fish. so i spose it isnt cycling but i only came to these forums after i introduced the fish. Everyone else is fine tho and being really active and have really bright colours.

I am not going to replace the swordtail for a couple of weeks tho

(he is buried in the garden ancient style with some fish flakes to eat in the afterlife)

(oh and has his own crocus bulb)

Thanks for your advice guys

Will get a water testing set soon

Click to expand...

Lol.