Post mortem analysis, What happend? [Archive]

Loosir

10-23-2015, 05:03 PM

Hi all,
I woke up and fed the fish this morning, everything looked fine and then when I home, one of my beautiful 5" Silver Pigeons was dead on the bottom of the tank, . This was him a few days ago. 91366

I'm at a loss, the water's fine, temp was 82, nothing new in the tank 91367

Everyone else is fine and looks great, no bars or peppering.

Is there anything else I should be checking to find out what happened?

Thanks
Geoff

jeepdad

10-23-2015, 05:21 PM

sorry to hear about your fish Geoff.

Loosir

10-23-2015, 05:29 PM

Thanks Jeep, this is my first loss in a year, I'm bummed, and I was hoping to bring this one to Nada.

Rudustin

10-23-2015, 06:54 PM

I am very sorry to hear of this loss. It's so difficult to explain to non discus people how frustrating and sad it is to lose such a lovely discus. Once again my condolences. It's happened to me as well. Frustrating because you don't know why????? I get it. Take care. Rufus

Ryan

10-23-2015, 07:14 PM

Sometimes unexplained deaths happen. Sometimes they get spooked and slam into the glass, killing them. It may have nothing to do with water or illness.

Lilly

10-23-2015, 07:36 PM

Sometimes unexplained deaths happen. Sometimes they get spooked and slam into the glass, killing them. It may have nothing to do with water or illness.

+1 to this....I had one discus who would hit the glass and knock its self out! Lucky I was there to pick it up off the bottom and float it in front of the outflow and brought it around...eventually I wasn't there and found it on the bottom. No question in my mind what happened.

So sorry for your loss

tj_718

10-24-2015, 01:35 AM

there are lots of reasons that can kill your fish.
and the medical science of discus is not as advanced as humanlity.
but most reasons of fish death are the paresites or bacterium.
you can find reason from the two facts

tj_718

10-24-2015, 01:36 AM

by the way your fish was so beautiful

John_Nicholson

10-24-2015, 07:16 AM

Death is part of life. Sometimes these thing just happen.

-john

Loosir

10-24-2015, 09:47 AM

Thanks all, It came as a shock and I'll keep monitoring the tank! Thanks for the advice and kind words.
Geoff

Loosir

12-04-2015, 11:44 PM

So I decided to buy a new glass thermometer since I thought my water seemed warmer than in the summer. Turns out that my coralife digital thermometer is off by 10 deg. Tried changing batteries but the readings still the same. Guess my temp might not have been 82 like I'd thought!
This is it after I've reset my two heaters. 92388

DISCUS STU

12-05-2015, 12:00 AM

Sorry for your loss, this was a beautiful fish and even worse when they've been raised from juveniles.

Sudden tank collisions may be an explanation, it's the only thing I've been able to think of when otherwise healthy fish are either very quickly die or seem to get deathly ill very quickly out of a clear blue sky. This has happened to me a few times over the years.

Recently I had a mixed tank of Discus and Altum Angels that I raised from juveniles. Within a moment one of the Altums, which had previously been healthy, was dead as I was actually standing next to the tank. Maybe it collided with the tank walls, I can't say. One moment alive and healthy and the next moment completely dead. I'm still scratching my head over this one.

rickztahone

12-05-2015, 12:30 AM

Geoff, I am sure you have seen Rick's post about the DIY cheap controller? That device can be used to simply monitor temp only and it is really accurate. It lines up perfectly with my HM TDS pen and another temp monitor I have. However, like others have said, deaths sometimes happen. I in no way think this was related to illness, the fish looks super healthy! I think it was just a freak death, that is all. Now, if you notice anything odd in the next few weeks, please let us know.

That is a shame that it was this one though, it was a really nice one, then again, all your discus are really nice. Sorry for your loss :(

Loosir

12-05-2015, 01:06 AM

Thanks Stu and Ricardo! I lost this guy over a month ago and the tank plus all the others have been just fine. I've posted some vids of shimmering that you've commented on. The other silver pigeon may still make it to NADA this summer! I was just really suprised to find out that I may have been keeping my temps close to 92 deg for a really long time

I'm definitley going to reread that controller thread!

TexMoHoosier

12-05-2015, 11:12 AM

Loosir

12-05-2015, 11:55 AM

The digital thermometer was fine for the last year or so but then it seemed like my water temps dropped in the fall. I have two 300w jager heaters that I had to turn up to about 92deg to get the water up to 82deg. I had rearranged my heaters in the sump and the display and so on, and I had assumed that plus having the AC on a bunch in August and September was why the water temp was all over the place. Plus I'm a bad judge of water temp, some days it feels one way and after I've chased the kids around the house it feels completely different. But we have a digital thermometer for the inside of our fridge (my wife's worried about spoiled milk) so I thought I'd see what it read the tank temp as. It came back in the 90's so I bought a glass one to be sure and turned the heaters back to 82. So my thought is if the Jagers are set to 82 and the fridge heater and glass heater read 82 then the coralife must be the busted one.
I didn't realize they could be calibrated?

TexMoHoosier

12-05-2015, 07:48 PM

I probably should have said "checked" instead of "calibrated". If I'm unsure how accurate a thermometer is, I put it in ice water, which will always be 32 deg F to see if it really reads 32 deg F.

Loosir

12-05-2015, 08:16 PM

That's makes a lot of sense! So I did the test and as it turns out......The Coralife is way off! I was definitely cooking my fish. 92399

rickztahone

12-05-2015, 08:49 PM

I never trusted those. Get the temp controller. You won't regret it

Ryan

12-06-2015, 02:53 PM

I have six or seven Coralife digital thermometers here and they all say something different in the same tank. lol

Filip

12-06-2015, 04:51 PM

I never trusted those. Get the temp controller. You won't regret it

What about old-school cheapest mercury thermometers?
Do you think they are trustworthy?

DISCUS STU

12-07-2015, 11:52 AM

I buy the large glass, suction cup thermometers, my eyes aren't as good as they once were and find it hard to read the smaller ones now. I think they're great. I think they're made by Marina.

They work well except that they tend to get shattered during Discus ruckus's, as a result I now place them in the corner furthest away from where most of them congregate. Just got one yesterday, will post a pic. later. They're about $4.99 each.

rickztahone

12-07-2015, 04:18 PM

What about old-school cheapest mercury thermometers?
Do you think they are trustworthy?
Yes I do. However, I tend to avoid them for the reason Stu has depicted below

I buy the large glass, suction cup thermometers, my eyes aren't as good as they once were and find it hard to read the smaller ones now. I think they're great. I think they're made by Marina.

They work well except that they tend to get shattered during Discus ruckus's, as a result I now place them in the corner furthest away from where most of them congregate. Just got one yesterday, will post a pic. later. They're about $4.99 each.

strawberryblonde

12-07-2015, 05:56 PM

I use a temp controller, and calibrate by using my cheese making thermometer. Don't tell my husband, ok?? I sterilize it before I make cheese again!

Cheese thermometers are large and have easy to read dials. You could also try a candy thermometer, but I'm not sure how easy they are to read at the lower temps of a discus tank. (Cheese thermometers are made to read between 70F - 165F)

pitdogg2

12-07-2015, 06:27 PM

I also use the Coralife thermometers but also back them up with another regular thermometer as we all know electronics do go bad one way or another. I have had several of the thermometers like Stu suggested. First thing I do is check with ice water to see how far off it may or may not be, then make note of that. I have found that in the last 5-8 yrs they have gotten more sloppy so to speak. I have bought 5 of the same and got 5 different readings. I now use a laser thermometer to check tank temps it is very accurate and a hand me down from one of the maintenance guys from work. They had bought it just for checking water in the chillers and other heating and cooling equipment. To buy it on my own I could never afford it.

DISCUS STU

12-07-2015, 07:59 PM

92445

This is a good thermometer. Marina #11204. At 5.5" the numbers are a good size to read easily.

Loosir

12-07-2015, 08:07 PM

Yep! That's the one I got, but i bought it because it has discus on the package:D

Jack L

12-07-2015, 09:46 PM

92445

This is a good thermometer. Marina #11204. At 5.5" the numbers are a good size to read easily.

i gave up on these, i found them to be off by several degrees from one to the next, and i tended to break them.

believe it or not, i found some really inexpensive ones from china, tested out accurate. digitals.

but in time, you can feel it by hand pretty good.

DISCUS STU

12-08-2015, 12:27 PM

i gave up on these, i found them to be off by several degrees from one to the next, and i tended to break them.

believe it or not, i found some really inexpensive ones from china, tested out accurate. digitals.

but in time, you can feel it by hand pretty good.

Never had an issue with this one. Though sometimes with the smaller ones, too small for me to read anymore anyway.

DJW

12-08-2015, 01:38 PM

I use controllers and alarm-thermometers set to go off at 79.5 and 85. We have frequent power outages, and sometimes, but rarely, a GFI will pop off.

http://www.amazon.com/General-Tools-Instruments-AQ150-Thermometer/dp/B00M9T7ZF8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1449596235&sr=8-1&keywords=general+aquarium+thermometer+with+alarm

rickztahone

12-08-2015, 03:08 PM