Lost my Heckel yesterday & another one this morning

[wild_amazon]

Yesterday morning I found my wild heckel at the bottom of the tank unable to swim straight. It lied horizontally. I gave him a salt bath for 30 minutes and put it back in the tank. I reduced the filtration so it only had little water movement in the tank. When I came back from work I found it dead.
I don't know what cause it. A day before it was still swimming and eating well. The previous night I removed the tank lid to remove 1 light because it was too bright for them. Maybe I spooked it and hurt itself. I did check them after I put the lid back and they were fine.
Not very happy, it was taken from the Amazon river and died in my tank. I don't think I did the right thing. Maybe I should leave it to the expert next time.

[Bill T.]

I imagine Lady Red would counsel not to be too hard on yourself - these things happen to the best!
Then, she would ask about your water parameters: pH, Ammonium, Nitrite & Nitrate, gH.
Then, were any other fish affected?

Personally, if I ever have this happen to me again, I will take the fish before it dies (or as soon after) to a fish vet for a diagnosis.

I've heard these wild caught discus are v. tricky to keep, so you may have better luck with one of the more domesticated varieties - but do sterilize your tank first.

[Dave76]

Sorry to hear about your loss.

How are the other two looking ?

Dave

[chrissyoscar]

Sorry to hear about your lose. I lost my favorite discus the other day so I know how you feel.
Could of been anything so don't blame yourself.

Oscar

[axelfaz]

sorry hear the bad news i lost 2 the other week keep your chin up and dont give up like i neally did .

[Merrilyn]

Gee, that's rotten luck. I'm so sorry to hear of your loss. How are the other two looking?

These wild caught fish are so touchy, even at the best of times. You may not have done anything wrong at all. We have no way of knowing what is going on inside our fish, and no way of knowing what disease it may have been carrying, even before it got to your tank.

Still it's heartbreaking, and I do sympathise with you. Hang in there mate. You've got other fish who still need you :wink:

[wild_amazon]

Thank you for the kind words and supports.

I will check the water when I get home today, I didn't think about it yesterday.
The other two heckels are fine and eating well. I feed them FBW and tetra colourbits.
Maybe the fish got scared and hurt itself, that's the only explanation that I can find. The tank is very lightly stocked 4x2x2 with 3 now 2 mid size heckels, 20 neon tetras and few other small tetras. I did a 40% water change last Friday.
I was planning to get 4 more discus.

[jim from sydney]

it can be tough sometimes.......sorry to hear about the loss.........how long did you have it for???? do you feel maybe it was diseased when you bought it????wild ones are difficult to adapt, so i am told......did you see any difference in its behaviour compared with the locally bred discus????Jim

[wild_amazon]

Found another dead heckel at the bottom of the tank this morning. It's been hiding for few days and yesterday I push it out from the hiding few times. Each times it got chased by another one and got back into hiding. Last night it was hiding on the filter pipe near the surface for a short time and when I went to bed I saw it hiding in the usual spot amongst java fern.

Nitrite = 0
Ammonia < 0.1 mg/L
PH 7.2
Temp 28

I never quarantine and medicate my fish before I got this discus. A lot of effort has gone into this and it's discouraging.

[jim from sydney]

gee thats tough luck...sorry to hear it again......i know how you feel i lost 18 juveniles over christmas they were all spooked like crazy and i dont know why, i tried everything.....
The best thing to do is NOT to worry, but to learn from it....go back in time and see what you did then ask yourself things like....what water conditions were they in when you bought them...what did you do when you took them home...isolate for how long.......check signs of illness....etc. and learn from those things.......there is always a reason, the difficulty is what was it, this is when you start asking q's on the forum....the forum is a great source of info and always willing to help...i even had a few people giving me their phone number so i could ring them...wasn't that just tops!!!!!! good luck...Jim

[dreamer]

from the water parameter reading it seems that your tank is not fully cycled. fully cycled tank should only show nitrate and we do wc to reduce the level of nitrate.

next time make sure your cycle your tank properly to avoid unnecessary death.

[Dave76]

Hi wild

Sorry to hear you lost another one :(

How long was the tank setup before you put the discus in ?

Maybe the addition of 3 discus to a tank with only small tetras was enough to start a mini cycle if you are getting ammonia readings....

Dave

[Merrilyn]

Oh gee, not another one. I'm so sorry to hear that.

One of the other forum members brought to my attention the fact that a lot of the imported discus are carrying nematodal parasites when the arrive here.

Treatment for this is Levamisole, a pig and poultry wormer. You can get it from some of the larger pet supply shops, or a feed and grain merchant.

The dose rate is 1ml per 7 litres of aquarium water.

It's worth a try. :?

Hope it helps.

[wild_amazon]

The fish suvived the uncycled QT with full doze of prazi and metro. I thought when I put them in their 4x2x2 tank they will be a lot happier.
The 4x2x2 tank is about 4 months old. I wonder if I should remove the driftwoods and leave the tank completely bare. The driftwood was purchased from LFS about 2 months ago. They smell quite strong (stink) when I lift them up the other day. The java ferns that I attached to the woods don't seem to mind and grow quite well.

They didn't show any sign of sickness and was still eating a day before.
Do discus died from stress easily? That was not my experience 15 years ago when I used to keep them.

[Merrilyn]

No they don't usually die from stress that easily, but we are talking wilds here, and that is a whole different ball game.

You say the driftwood stinks. Do you mean like rotten food, or dead fish smell?

If so, it could have rotting food waste trapped under it. Take the wood out to the back yard, and give it a good high powered squirt with the garden hose to dislodge any rubbish from in and around the wood and plants. Driftwood purchased from a LFS should be quite safe to use..

I'm keeping my fingers crossed for you :?

[Budi_Armyn]

pak Hendi,
I'm very sorry to hear that. Heckel is my favorite too and I do have a similar experience with wild ones. Several years ago, I lost 2 wild Heckels; but the case is sligthly different. Mine were not eating for several days and become skinny. I 've tried several treatments, but didn't work. Now I'm still trying to find tank bred Heckel.

regards,


budi armyn

[DR.V]

Mine were not eating for several days and become skinny.

Sounds like one of my discus... hehehe thats defineatly HEX !!!

[wild_amazon]

The last heckel that I have died last night. The same thing happened, it decided to swim frantically and swimming in small cicrles. It died with all fins fully opened, same like the other two. I don't know why but probably shock or stress. Anyway, I won't be buying wild discus for a long time or ever again.

[Benny]

terribly sorry 2 hear it :(

[Merrilyn]

I'm so sorry. :cry:

[jim from sydney]

rotton luck.....keep your spirits high....Jim