My first fish casualty

[mrsjoannh13]

Dang it, y'all.... I lost my first fish today. It's my daughter's tank and it was her favorite fish. Ironically its name was Little Angel. It was one of 4 glofish tetras in a 10 gallon tank. The water parameters have been good and consistent over the past month or so I've had the tank (no ammonia, no nitrite, 10 or less nitrate, temp holding steady at 77). She was the smallest of the fish and always just hid out behind one of the plants. She also seemed to have trouble eating. She'd take a piece of food and spit it out repeatedly. We tried breaking up the pieces really small for her but some of it was already super tiny and she still had trouble. So maybe she had some health issues we weren't aware of? Visibly she looked fine - nothing on her fins or scales, eyes looked good, color okay, etc. The only "off" thing was the behavior and trouble eating. I figured it was just because she was small but maybe it was something else we couldn't detect? Sigh...

I think my daughter would be heartbroken so if she doesn't notice before she leaves for school in the morning I might go to the fish store and get a replacement.

No fun. No fun at all

 

[HoldenOn]

Dang it, y'all.... I lost my first fish today. It's my daughter's tank and it was her favorite fish. Ironically its name was Little Angel. It was one of 4 glofish tetras in a 10 gallon tank. The water parameters have been good and consistent over the past month or so I've had the tank (no ammonia, no nitrite, 10 or less nitrate, temp holding steady at 77). She was the smallest of the fish and always just hid out behind one of the plants. She also seemed to have trouble eating. She'd take a piece of food and spit it out repeatedly. We tried breaking up the pieces really small for her but some of it was already super tiny and she still had trouble. So maybe she had some health issues we weren't aware of? Visibly she looked fine - nothing on her fins or scales, eyes looked good, color okay, etc. The only "off" thing was the behavior and trouble eating. I figured it was just because she was small but maybe it was something else we couldn't detect? Sigh...

I think my daughter would be heartbroken so if she doesn't notice before she leaves for school in the morning I might go to the fish store and get a replacement.

No fun. No fun at all

Part of the hobby I'm afraid! Sorry for your loss. Might have gotten bullied, or cramped because that's a bit small for glo tetras (the same as black/gold skirts).

 

[mrsjoannh13]

Part of the hobby I'm afraid! Sorry for your loss. Might have gotten bullied, or cramped because that's a bit small for glo tetras (the same as black/gold skirts).

Yep, I'm upgrading to a 20 gallon this weekend. Soonest I could get to it unfortunately. I didn't see it getting bullied, although that might explain it's favorite hiding spot.

 

[mcordelia]

Ohhh noooo I'm so sorry!!!! When I saw the title I thought for sure it was one of the two in the QT, but alas.

Also, I probably would just come clean to your daughter. She's gonna know it's a different fish because it's going to be bigger and behave differently, and you also don't want to undermine the hard work you're doing QT'ing the other two. It's important for kids to learn about death in a safe setting, I feel like that's one of the purposes of pets in a way (in terms of pets having shorter lifespans than humans in general, not killing them off just to teach a lesson lol).

That's just my 2c on the matter, but you know your daughter best

 

[FFGuest6357]

I agree with @mcordelia

I lost 7 panda cories, and thought that my son and I had done everything we could to provide the best possible living situation for the fish. Not sure if something went wonky in the tank, or if it was something they brought home from the store. Sometimes a fish just doesn’t make it.

I took him on the ride, we tried everything we could find to keep those fish alive. He was sad when they died, but he learned about fish keeping, pet keeping, learning to learn, trying your best and sometimes the outcome is still expletive.

kids are tougher and more capable of dealing than I think some of us give them credit for. I wouldn’t lie to my kids about it.

especially my eldest, he’s good at math and damn he can count every fish in the tank.

sorry for your loss, but it can be a great source of learning for your young one.

 

[Fish4dawin]

Sorry for your loss. It always sucks losing fish especially ones hat your kids like. Unfortunately, it's part of the hobby. I had two powder blue gouramis and one got stuck in an ornament and damaged his brain. He later died. I tried a replacement one but he got bullied consistently by the original. About 3-4 weeks later he died. It's part of the hobby and whilst I've not lost a major amount of fish it's still sad to see them pass. As @mcordelia said you should come clean with your daughter. There is no point hiding it. She will get over it and she'll be fine.