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Hi, Is it possible for a Discus to die of love sickness?
I have 8 discus in a 330L tank. A pair of young Discus started mating. As I felt they were too small so I moved the male to an adjacent tank.
Everything seemed OK, but they kept eyeing each other up through the glass. Last night I put a black sheet of plastic between the two tanks.
This morning I found the female dead. All the other discus are healthy.
Has anyone had this happen before. Can a fish be love sick?
Hi James,
Welcome to SimplyDiscus!
Sorry you lost your Discus! :( While its not likely that your discus died of "love Sickness" it is likely that the move was stressful and something just happened coincidentally with the separation.. Be sure to check all your water parameters in that tank.
Never a good thing to go through but hopefully your other 7 will pair up for you.
hth,
al
Thank you for your comments.
Both tanks are served by the same filter, so the water parameters are identical. Also it was the Discus that wasn't moved that died.
I guess it was just bad luck!
Welcome to the forum James .
While it has never happened to me Ive heard stories in the hobby from fellow hobissts about Angels that refused to eat and deteriorates after its partner died or was being transfered .
However they reported non eating and slow deterioration over the course of weeks/ months , rather than a quick death like in your case .
So even if we accept the belief of monogamous pairs in fish and deep grief after their separation I still think that this sudden death of your discus wasn't the case .
I had an angelfish pair went like that, lost one and then the other went a few months later.