Last night I lost one of my festivums, really quickly 
She was only 3 years old, 6" and very healthy she ate the day before no problems, yesterday morning she was absolutely normal, however around lunchtime I noticed she was hanging around the surface (I was doing a wc on the tank opposite this one, their tank was next to be done). She looked in "display mode" all her fins were sticking out stiffly as if she was displaying, the male in the tank was coming up to her with stiff flared fins and shimmying at her but she was blank and not responding at all. I did a wc on the tank, gravel vac etc tested the water just in case but everything was normal. She never responded to me while doing the water change she just stayed near the glass stiff and not swimming. Adding the fresh water they would normally be in the flow, but she was the other end of the tank like a zombie fish really. She was not breathing heavily at all, perfectly normal, her colour was bright just she had all her fins fully extended. I finished the wc and turned out the lights. At 6pm I fed them as normal but she was totally unresponsive to food just stayed near the surface not gasping or anything abnormal colour fine etc fins still extended. I checked on her again at 7pm and she was on the bottom dead.
There were no marks on her body, her colour was really vivid (although maybe a bit too vivid to normal). I have never seen a fish act like this before then die, usually a sick fish will have clamped fins not all sticking up, none of the scales were sticking up at all. I am totally at a loss as to what caused her death.
She was only 3 years old, 6" and very healthy she ate the day before no problems, yesterday morning she was absolutely normal, however around lunchtime I noticed she was hanging around the surface (I was doing a wc on the tank opposite this one, their tank was next to be done). She looked in "display mode" all her fins were sticking out stiffly as if she was displaying, the male in the tank was coming up to her with stiff flared fins and shimmying at her but she was blank and not responding at all. I did a wc on the tank, gravel vac etc tested the water just in case but everything was normal. She never responded to me while doing the water change she just stayed near the glass stiff and not swimming. Adding the fresh water they would normally be in the flow, but she was the other end of the tank like a zombie fish really. She was not breathing heavily at all, perfectly normal, her colour was bright just she had all her fins fully extended. I finished the wc and turned out the lights. At 6pm I fed them as normal but she was totally unresponsive to food just stayed near the surface not gasping or anything abnormal colour fine etc fins still extended. I checked on her again at 7pm and she was on the bottom dead.There were no marks on her body, her colour was really vivid (although maybe a bit too vivid to normal). I have never seen a fish act like this before then die, usually a sick fish will have clamped fins not all sticking up, none of the scales were sticking up at all. I am totally at a loss as to what caused her death.
