S.D.D.S.

[paulmat]

I had a tragic discovery this A.M.
One of my White Butterflys( 7 in. beautiful fish) suddenly,w/o any symptoms or warning was dead. :-[
Sudden Discus Death Syndrome

Yesterday, I noticed he wasn't eating,figured I better keep my eye on him,Pow he's dead. No marks or any obvious signs of disease.Looked fine the day before ???

Any thoughts or explanations?

Paul :guitarist:

[SLY]

stress or internal parasites might be he cause..check the gills cover? what color is it? it might be shocked and dash around banging on walls..there are so many possibilities.,sorry to hear about your loss.

[paulmat]

Sly

The autopsy was inconclusive.
No signs of parasitic infestation,fishs color and behavior the past few days was good ,ther were no signs of trauma(bruising,scrapes)
As you say could have been anything,but I just would like to know(which I probably never will)

Paul

[SLY]

if it's a mad dash I don't think u will see scratches or bruises..they will just knock themselves cold and slowly laid down and die..seen fishes die like that without any symthoms..we call that the heart attack..I know ur frustration. :(

[Carol_Roberts]

I had an unexplained death similiar to yours. 6 young adults in a 55 gallon. All fine in the morning - came home to one floating at the top - never figured it out ???

Carol :heart1:

[Steve_Warner]

Hi all,
Could it be blockages possibly? Paul, did ya check the intestines for large restrictions? How about ANY chemicals used near the tank recently, entering via the air?? Hmmmmmm


Steve

[paulmat]

Steve
I did check the intestinal track and it was clean and no chems. around the tank, there are 14 fish in this 90 gl. and the other fish are looking fine,but so did that one.

Paul

[Wolf]

I had the same thing happen to one of my fish. It turned out it was intestinal blockage. One day he was healthy the next day he was belly up. I think genetic weaknesses have a roll in this.

Where did you get that fish? Was he locally bred?.
Jimmy.

[paulmat]

Jimmy

I have had the fish for 9 mos. it was big and don't blame the breeder,but I got it from Mike Wells,and the rest of the fish I got from him are beautiful specimens.

Paul :guitarist:

[DarkDiscus]

Paul,

It could be anything. A discus brain aneurism. Whatever. It stinks, but once you check the obvious, and assuming your other fish are okay, you just have to say it was his "time."

Sorry to hear about it. It's always tough to lose a fish and worse when you have know idea what happened.

John

[Jason]

this sounds crazy, but have your water checked, I was losing fish the same way at the rate of one a week, sometimes after a w/c, sometimes not. No external symptoms just dead.

Had my water tested 3 times at the local university, finally the 3rd test showed high alum levels, I now have to pass all my water through a metal absorbing resin, its been about 4 months now, no deaths and fish are spawning again :)

[EthanCote.com]

Hey Paul,

I had one of my fish die that way as well. Mine you, mine did showed sign of stressed but it still didn't explain the sudden death in a day.

Really strange indeed. Never really figured what was wrong with it. I just marked it up as my inexperience and stress.

Just thot I share.


Cheers,

Chi.

I heard people reported this way too often. I had one imported Oriental Leopard die during spawning. I asked my Asian breeder friend. His explaination was a heart attack may have caused by the hormone the breeder were using a couple of weeks before shipping. Those fish will not grow properly, spawn at 3-4" and die suddenly. If you get him from Mike and your fish was 7". This can be ruled out. It's still a mistery.
Jimmy.

Sorry to read about your loss. It happens.

Miles