craniac24
08-09-2007, 11:12 AM
Hi everyone,
I haven't posted here in awhile, but I wanted to share a pretty fascinating story...and to see if anyone else has ever had anything similar happen before.
When I got home from work around 7:00 last night, I noticed one of my adult discus was hovering near the top of the tank. He was positioned at a 45 degree angle, and breathing very heavily. He was very dark and did not look happy at all. All the other discus in the tank were quite normal. When I inspected him closely, it seemed that perhaps he was mildly bloated, but nothing to the extent that made me think this was the cause of his discomfort.
Over the next hour, he started to do the "death dance", swimming aimlessly and unable to hold himself upright. His colors got very patchy and ultimately he ended up laying flat on the gravel, breathing even more heavily. Obviously I knew that he was going to die imminently.
For the next two hours, he continued to lie motionless on the gravel, still breathing heavily. I figured that I needed to put this poor guy out of his misery, so I decided to put him in a container and place it in the freezer. Unfortunately, the only containers I had were either too small for the fish, or too big for the freezer. I didn't want to simply take him out while he was still alive and discard him, and I felt awful that I just had to sit there and let him suffer, but I had no choice but to let nature take its course and finish the job.
No less than 5 minutes later, he got himself off the gravel and began to swim. I didn't really find this necessarily hopeful though, because his colors still had that "pre-death" patchiness to it, still breathing very heavily, and he was still basically floating as opposed to truly swimming.
Unbeliveably though, his swimming got stronger, and his breating more normal. Appearance though was still extremely mottled...he didn't look good at all. It was now about 1AM and I couldn't stay up any longer so I went to bed. Upon awakening, I immediately went to the tank and turned on the lights. His appearance now was COMPLETELY normal with bright vibrant colors! When feeding time came he ate heartily and basically had no indications that 8 hours earlier he was on death's door.
This has NEVER happened to me before, and I have NO idea what on earth happened....why he got sick in the first place, and how he managed to pull himself out of it. And to think....the only reason that he's alive right now is because I couldn't find the right sized container to freeze him in!!! How lucky!
Anyway...just thought I'd share. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this, or if you have some thoughts on what was wrong with the poor guy, please share.
I haven't posted here in awhile, but I wanted to share a pretty fascinating story...and to see if anyone else has ever had anything similar happen before.
When I got home from work around 7:00 last night, I noticed one of my adult discus was hovering near the top of the tank. He was positioned at a 45 degree angle, and breathing very heavily. He was very dark and did not look happy at all. All the other discus in the tank were quite normal. When I inspected him closely, it seemed that perhaps he was mildly bloated, but nothing to the extent that made me think this was the cause of his discomfort.
Over the next hour, he started to do the "death dance", swimming aimlessly and unable to hold himself upright. His colors got very patchy and ultimately he ended up laying flat on the gravel, breathing even more heavily. Obviously I knew that he was going to die imminently.
For the next two hours, he continued to lie motionless on the gravel, still breathing heavily. I figured that I needed to put this poor guy out of his misery, so I decided to put him in a container and place it in the freezer. Unfortunately, the only containers I had were either too small for the fish, or too big for the freezer. I didn't want to simply take him out while he was still alive and discard him, and I felt awful that I just had to sit there and let him suffer, but I had no choice but to let nature take its course and finish the job.
No less than 5 minutes later, he got himself off the gravel and began to swim. I didn't really find this necessarily hopeful though, because his colors still had that "pre-death" patchiness to it, still breathing very heavily, and he was still basically floating as opposed to truly swimming.
Unbeliveably though, his swimming got stronger, and his breating more normal. Appearance though was still extremely mottled...he didn't look good at all. It was now about 1AM and I couldn't stay up any longer so I went to bed. Upon awakening, I immediately went to the tank and turned on the lights. His appearance now was COMPLETELY normal with bright vibrant colors! When feeding time came he ate heartily and basically had no indications that 8 hours earlier he was on death's door.
This has NEVER happened to me before, and I have NO idea what on earth happened....why he got sick in the first place, and how he managed to pull himself out of it. And to think....the only reason that he's alive right now is because I couldn't find the right sized container to freeze him in!!! How lucky!
Anyway...just thought I'd share. I'm curious if anyone else has experienced this, or if you have some thoughts on what was wrong with the poor guy, please share.