Discus dies after being netted to a bigger tank.

[Antoniombdl]

This Wednesday as I woke up, one of my discus breeding pairs was leaking. In order to save the fish I had to move them to a bigger tank with similar parameters and temperature. The female was a little bit stressed but no more than that, but the male got so stressed he died the next day. Can discus have heart attacks? The only thing that comes to my mind was that he was eating a lot of beefheart lately.

[pitdogg2]

Yea he probably had an undiagnosed Widowmaker.....

😉

[LizStreithorst]

That's a mystery, for sure. Sometimes fish do just up and die. It doesn't happen often but it has happened to me. I know it must have been hard to loose one of a breeding pair. I'm sorry.

[fljones3]

It might just be a coincidence. The fish just happened to die after the move. In other words, the cause was not the move. Something else could have been occurring.
Sorry for the loss.

[Antoniombdl]

A friend of mine told it might have been something on the gills, like gill flukes. But with no symptoms before?

[LizStreithorst]

I think you guessed closest when you said a heart attack. It wasn't flukes. It must have been some internal problem like a massive heart attack. Who knows...I've had a fish just up and die before for no apparent reason. It doesn't happen often, but it does happen.

[jwcarlson]

One of my rummynose died when I netted them out to move them over to the discus tank last week. The other seven were fine. Netting them out of the community tank wasn't without stress. But it was swimming around in the bag while I was floating them and then I released them into one of those netted fry nets hanging on the side of the discus tank to keep them from getting eaten the first night. And one was dead a few hours later. *Stuff* happens... really sad that it was one of your discus though :( I'd guess as others saying above, something like a heart attack.

[jpm995]

Sometimes when fish are freaked out in a new tank they hurt themselves by crashing into the glass or decorations. Discus seem to get freaked out more than most tropicals.