Sudden death - no symptoms

[1fishnut]

Hi, I woke up this morning and found a dead discus, which seemed perfectly happy the night before. Not sure what happened and what I can do to prevent something like this from happening with the other 10 in the tank. Any advise would be much appreciated. Thanks!

Problem

1. Please explain the problems with your fish. When did you notice the problems and did anything unusual happen that you think started them?
3.5 in Snakeskin PB found dead in the morning - no prior issues, was acting normal and attacking the food last night.

2. Symptoms (i.e. turning dark, excess slime, not eating, clamped fins, flashing, darting, clamped gills, white/yellow/green poop, hiding, headstanding or tailstanding, white on tips of fins, rotting or fungus, blisters/white zits on fish, bloated, cloudy eyes, wounds).

No symptoms, no injuries. When found dead this morning, the fins looked darker than normal and it looked like it had a full belly - not bloated, just as if it had a full meal

3. What medications/ treatments have you already tried and what were the results. Include dosage and duration of treatment.

none

Tank/Water

4. Tank size and ages, numbers and sizes of fish.
110 g, 10 remaining discus 3.5-4.5 in

5. Water change regime (What percentage and how often).
30% daily

6. How long has tank been running? Is it bare bottom? If you have substrate, what type and how deep is it?
Running as a discus tank for 6 months, bare bottom

7. Do you age your water? If you do for how long and what is the ph swing.
Not aged, minimal ph swing

8. Parameters and water source;

Note: Water Parameters are important in diagnosing problems within a tank. If you don't own test kits for the following information, you can purchase them, test your parameters and post this info as soon as possible.


- temp _84____

- ph _7.4-7.8____

- ammonia reading __0__

- nitrite reading __0__

- nitrate reading _5-10___

What type of water or combinations of water sources do you use? If it is an RO/tap/well water mix, please list percentages in the mix.

- well water ____

- municipal water __x__

- RO water ____


9. Any new fish, plants or inverts added recently.
None. This one was from the group of 4 (3 in) added early October, purchased from Discus Hans. The other 7 were also from Hans.

10. Include any pictures or videos you have which shows the symptoms. If you can't add them to this post, please provide a link to them.

[Keith Perkins]

Two possibilities immediately come to mind, thought I'm sure there are others.

1). The fish was startled by something and went head first into the glass with enough force to kill it. This doesn't necessarily show damage and is suspicion #1.

2). The fish had a genetic defect of some type and suffered sudden major organ failure, such as a heart attack.

Neither of these things is real common, but they do happen. I would keep an extra close eye on the remaining fish for awhile in case this fish did have something going on earlier and you just didn't notice it. Sometimes we all miss subtle changes, just a good idea to be cautious at this point.

[1fishnut]

Thank you for your response, CozyKeith. The other 10 have not displayed any issues since the incident ~2 wks ago, so it indeed appears to have been an isolated event.

[Keith Perkins]

Good to hear.