Would it be safe to add two more gudgeons?

[Lajos_Detari]

I agree with @itiwhetu that how are you sure that stress caused the death of your fish.

I buy fish quite frequently from the lfs, and based on my observations, there are a few reasons why a new fish die:
1) The fish is carrying disease from the fish farm.
2) The fish is infected with disease while in the fish store.
3) High ammonia, nitrite during transportation from the farm to the fish store will weaken the fish. If your tank isn't cycled properly, it will kill them. Some lfs tanks will also have high ammonia if they keep too many fish in the tanks just like some of the lfs in my place.
4) Too much changes in the water chemistry(GH and pH) from the fish farm to the fish store and into your tank.
Though stress is bad, usually it's the disease, high ammonia/nitrite or drastic change in water chemistry that killed them(imo).

Visit the fish store again and observe the fish there for any signs/symptoms of disease. Some diseases can be deadly and hard to eradicate once they get into your tank.
Observe the Gudgeon fish tank and all other tanks. Sometimes the disease is spread from another tank in the fish shop especially when they used the same nets to catch all the fish or if the tanks are sharing the same filtration system.

If the fish is already infected, then don't buy from them at the moment. Wait for the next batch of fish.

Nevertheless, if their fish are healthy, then you can consider buying them again but it'll be better to diagnose and find out the reason of the death before buying again.

 

[Rocky998]

Ok, lets (for the sake of this conversation) say it was a disease. Even if it was a disease, it was most likely stress induced OR she hogged all the food at feeding time and it could have caused been to have SBD symptoms. My LPS isn't the best at aquarium care so I want to try and not get the fish from their tanks. This time I kinda had too... Their main supplier only had one in stock (they didnt tell me this when I special ordered them)... Then when I asked for my 3 gudgeons, they took the 3 that were in their tanks! They didnt even give me the one I had special ordered from the ice chest!... I should've said something... The good thing about those guys though, is that they have been in their tanks for a week or more. So I felt confident buying them after I watched them for a bit. I still really wish I had gotten the one from the chest though.

 

[itiwhetu]

I just hope the two remaining fish survive. Fish don't tend to overeat, that is a human thing but not something that animals tend to do.

 

[Deleted member 149562]

Stress is a weird thing with fish and like dropsy it is more often a symptom of an illness or disease rather than the outright cause of death. Frequently stress is an initial symptom of something far deeper.....for example as has already been said, there are potential issues with the LFS water chemistry that you as a customer will know nothing about - and let us be crystal clear on this, not every LFS employee will openly admit that they have been dealing with health issues with their stock, they want to sell that stock so it would be, to them, insane to tell a customer "oh well we have had an outbreak of this or that" unless they were extremely honest and decent fish suppliers.....there are some out there who will stop you buying a specific fish due to illness or who will take specific off the for sale list if the fish are substandard or showing signs of a health issue.

Most fish whether wild caught or imported from breeder are absolutely hammered before they even reach your local LFS. They are filled with anti this and that both as a preventative measure but more often than not, its an insurance policy to secure the money in the bank when they send bags of fish that are a bit off colour, they write into those bags a percentage of acceptable losses...and those losses could well be some sort of infectious nasty or lurgy that then spreads from fish to fish.

There are some very good, very humane breeders who do it for the sake of the species but there are far more breeders who do it for the money and they simply do not care what state the fish is in when it leaves them for the LFS as long as those bags are full of finned gold, the fish do not matter, the LFS does not matter and the customer who buys that gorgeous fish for their aquarium at home does not matter.

The bags of fish frequently have medication in high doses in them....its one of the reasons why fish in the home aquarium fail to respond to medication, the bugs are often immune to the effect of medication thanks to being over medicated by the breeder both in situ and in transit to the LFS and sometimes the LFS over medicates too before placing the "for sale" sign on them, especially if the percentage of losses in transit seem higher than acceptable or normal.

Every fish sold by an LFS unless you know the bloodline, have seen the breeding facility, have seen the methods of care at the farm and in transit will often be suffering from something....these poor fish start life in your home aquarium like an athlete trying to sprint up a downward travelling escalator before you get them home. As a result, not all will survive, some may even infect the rest of your stock.

Stress doesn't kill per se......it takes a perfect storm of bad breeding, bad breeding conditions, bad water chemistry in transit, over medication at the breeder and in transit and then poor conditions at the LFS for a fish to run out of steam, curl up its fins and die...often a preventable death had the chain of events leading up to it been broken early on.

Don't rush into replacing any fish that have died unexpectedly. Let the aquarium and the remaining fish rebalance for a few months. And when the time comes to replace, if you actually choose to do so, ask pertinent questions of the LFS about their breeding conditions, bloodline, transit conditions, number of fish from that batch that arrived dead or dying, ask if medications were used and if so which ones and why. A decent and honest LFS will tell you and show documentation to prove that the fish come from a humane breeder and they travelled in a humane way and without overloading their systems with medications. If the LFS hesitates or shrugs the shoulders...walk out that door without any fish.

Much is said about the poor conditions fish suffer at the farms, in transit etc but if you keep buying those fish without asking the right questions then you are perpetuating the problem. This is why so many chain LFS stopped selling fish cos they could not guarantee their fish were humanely treated right along the line from breeder to transit to store and that came about by the consumer protesting and complaining.

 

[Colin_T]

Fish don't tend to overeat, that is a human thing but not something that animals tend to do.

I had a dog that ate a lot. She never seemed full but one day we had a power failure and it lasted a week. I had to cook all the meat in the freezer and she ate until she was full. It was really funny because she wanted to eat more lamb chops but couldn't

 

[Rocky998]

I had a dog that ate a lot. She never seemed full but one day we had a power failure and it lasted a week. I had to cook all the meat in the freezer and she ate until she was full. It was really funny because she wanted to eat more lamb chops but couldn't

My mom had a dog when she was little... It ate its self to death. And my fish would eat themselves to death. So to say "animals wont over eat", that is false.

 

[itiwhetu]

My mom had a dog when she was little... It ate its self to death. And my fish would eat themselves to death. So to say "animals wont over eat", that is false.

I don't think your fish will eat themselves to death, it is just something animals don't do. Apart from domesticated animals like cats and dogs.

 

[Rocky998]

I don't think your fish will eat themselves to death, it is just something animals don't do. Apart from domesticated animals like cats and dogs.

Oh trust me, after watching them eat... You'd think they'd eat themselves to death

 

[Colin_T]

I used to feed my fish until they wouldn't eat anymore. The goldfish would swim around slowly but were still looking for food even tho they couldn't get anymore in

 

[Rocky998]

I used to feed my fish until they wouldn't eat anymore. The goldfish would swim around slowly but were still looking for food even tho they couldn't get anymore in

Wow! One of my fish seems pretty fat so I haven't fed my fish this weekend. Tomorrow I will feed lightly amd hope my new gudgeon likes the food

 

[Sgooosh]

cool! how much are they?

 

[itiwhetu]

Wow! One of my fish seems pretty fat so I haven't fed my fish this weekend. Tomorrow I will feed lightly amd hope my new gudgeon likes the food

So have you now got three?

 

[Rocky998]

So have you now got three?

Yes, I have 3 now. The new one has accepted the food, he/she stays in cover but thats normal cause he is settling in... He/she sometomes will come out though and explore the open areas.

 

[Rocky998]

cool! how much are they?

Their prices flux from $10 to $17 each

 

[StripySnailGirl04]

Yes, I have 3 now. The new one has accepted the food, he/she stays in cover but thats normal cause he is settling in... He/she sometomes will come out though and explore the open areas.

Nice. It is always good to know that a new fish is doing well.