When Things Go Wrong: A Death in the Tank

Sometimes it can be our fault - sometimes, it just isn't.

Yesterday started as an ordinary day at PK Endlers. It was beh-beh moving day - a once monthly event, when all the fry are removed from the breeding tanks and moved to grow-out bins. This involves removing the floating plants temporarily, and afterwards a tank clean for the breeder tank (if needed) and a 20% water change. Easy Peesy. Well, things got more complicated once I started in on my 5 gallon hospital tank. In that tank I’d isolated two aggressive, large female guppies – very beautiful ones, with white pearlescent bodies. They looked like heavenly angels, but in fact had killed two of my best Black Bar Endler Hybrid males. I put these femme fatales in the hospital tank, as I was determined to harvest the lost males' future fry without losing anymore fish. Up to this point, the two females had done well together and produced many rounds of gorgeous fry. In fact, it was now time to harvest the next round. It had been about a month since the last batch was born. Using a turkey baster, I carefully did the weekly removal of debris from the bare-bottom hospital tank. I eyed the filter; it needed a change, so I changed it. Next, I started netting out the fry and finished with a 20% water change. That should have been the end of the process. But then I noticed one of the females doing something odd. She’d swim in a tight, closed circle and stop; then, she repeated the very same process again - and again. She was also leaning slightly. I hoped that the excitement had just wound her up and she’d settle down – but I had a bad feeling about it. It seemed like obsessive-compulsive like behavior. Not like her usual behavior at all. I finished the rest of the tanks without incident, and came back to check on the circling female. She was no longer circling – but, the other female was chasing her and nipping at her. The ill female guppy still was leaning, and her color was off – she now looked dull and grey. I tapped on the glass to get the aggressor guppy’s attention and thought. There was something definitely wrong here. I began to suspect the leaning female guppy had suffered a stroke during the tank maintenance. There’s not much to be done in a situation like this. I gave the ill guppy a couple hours more in the hospital tank to see if she could pull out of it. When I came back, she was lying on top of a floating plant on her side. Her circulation had not improved; her body was darker - even black in places. At this point I put her in a betta cup and put her on top of a warm tank light. She could no longer do much of anything, and was severely leaning in the cup. She passed away overnight. I felt badly about her sudden passing. If I hadn’t stirred up the tank that day, might the guppy continued in good health? Maybe for a little while – but, the tank would have had to be cleaned within a day or two, and the fry removed. In retrospect, knowing how she passed, her next batch of fry probably would have killed her. I have accepted that this fish had a structural defect and because of stress - in that moment - the structural defect failed. ​ Despite our best care, fish die – often inexplicably. We don’t often see their passing, as it often occurs when we’re away or at night. We are often then faced with trying to solve the mystery of WHY:

• Is the water bad?

• Is the tank too dirty?

• Did the heater go bonkers?

• I did a water change – was there something in the water? Did I forget the dechlorinator?

• Did they have a disease? Will the other fish catch it?

• What community tank malcontent murdered them?

• Is my community tank unbalanced – are the wrong sort of fish mixed together?

• Were they doomed from the start?

• Did I shake the bag too much?

And so on. We find we can’t just feel sad for the fish that died; we have all these questions and guilt to wade through, too! Are we - like Darla, from "Finding Nemo" (who shook the bag too much) - unwitting fish killers? Sometimes, like a really corpulent man sitting mindlessly down on his couch, squashing his wife's sleeping one pound chihuahua - yes, yes sometimes we are. Maybe we bought the wrong equipment or didn't cycle the tank (Research, people! It's for everyone now, since we all have cell phones and the interwebs). Maybe we just had to have a Discus as our first fish - and didn't do the RESEARCH. Sometimes, we can be even more culpable in a fish's demise. There Idiots that eat live goldfish in one swallow (to prove to everyone that they are not only idiots, but animal-abusive idiots). Other times we are innocent, and happen to "see the tree in mid-fall". We cannot do more than hospice care. I had a platy which developed fishy dementia in his old age. There was no outward illness - he just stopped interacting with the other fish, swam very slowly and aimlessly, and stopped eating. He looked lost. After three days in a hospital tank he passed away. Then there are those times that are especially heartbreaking, and there is not much you can do but observe. I lost a first-time platy mom after she gave birth to two fry. I found her lying on a rock. When she saw me, she looked at me and wriggled a bit (we’d spent some time together, ever since she was born she was at desk). Then she swam back to God. Sadder still are problems with fry - new life. Fungus stalks eggs. Parents or others in community tanks eat fry. Sometime fry are born with defects that kill them immediately, or shortly after being born (sometimes, like in the story of the first-time platy mom, they don't get born at all). If I have severely compromised fry, I will remove them from the breeding tank. I don't believe in feeder fry and I don’t cull, per se. Fish that have no hope of survival are cupped and allowed to pass as peacefully as possible. I try to re-home slightly "challenged" fry and misfit fish if they are physically well (we’re talking “Lucky Fin” types of defects - think “Nemo”). Many of these fish would make a great single pet for a child or classroom pet, or a desk buddy! NOTE: Project Nemo: If anyone is interested in providing a forever home for fish such as these, contact PK Endlers and put "Project Nemo" in the subject line. There is no "re-homing fee" for these Project Nemo fish - just shipping/delivery charges, for delivery in the continental US only. I believe every fish I am given is a gift from God, and every life matters to him. Not even a sparrow falls to the ground without him noticing the loss. I’m here to care for, raise and re-home all the precious and beautiful fry I'm given. I hope you’ll help me to do that – perfect or not-so-perfect, every domestically raised fish needs a forever home. ______________ ​ © 2022 PK Endlers and Screaming Fly Productions LLC. All Rights Reserved. No reproduction or other use with out written permission. Thanks!