Can you scare a fish to death

Fish in bare tanks don't feel secure and if the tank is covered on all 4 sides, it's even worse. Fish, by nature tend to fear what comes from above so if the tank is covered on all 4 sides, someone who simply peers into the tank from the top can send the occupants to fish heaven.

I once saw one of my Discus die from something which looks very much like a heart seizure. My daughter jumped in front of the tank and the Discus immediately went into a spin.

It spiralled upwards and when it reach the surface of the water, it became motionless and sank to the bottom of the tank, dead. It was a healthy fish when it died. My friend who works in Underwater World in Sentosa as a diver told me a story a few years back.

Seems like a drunk tourist banged the side of one of their glass tanks. The fish were still okay after a few hours but the next day, they were all dead. Loh K L. Hi Kwek Leong, Yes, I heard such stories from my vet friends too. Even jittery fishes like arowanas do get muscular spasm after a shock, such that their back curved up which make them look like an S shape from the top view. Left alone for a couple of days to weeks, they usually recovers by themselves.

Not only fishes, but I heard that animals too, eg. THat's what my vet friends used to tell me, which doesn't seem so funny to me anymore Well, I certainly hope it is not due to heavy metals or something like that The fright factor has been used to explain some fish deaths but heavy metal poisoning does occur sometimes as Wright has mentioned. If the pipes in your block are old, they may have been copper pipes.

Water that remains in the pipe prior to being used by you may contain traces of copper and perhaps other metals if they had come into contact with it earlier.

I usually let the water run off for awhile, say a quick one minute run to flush out the initial water that should be concentrated with some traces of the metals. Of course this water doesn't go to waste. Sometimes I take a bathe before I change water for a tank so usually I turn on the tap a few minutes after I've finished my bath. Then I'll do the water change. Waste not, want not. Fish can be rather afraid when viewed from the top but some fish and fry when kept in a tank with lots of fellow occupants usually don't die from fright.

Those that usually become more shy are those that were raised from young in a tray away from areas with human traffic. As such they become unaccustomed to having peeking eyes peering at them. When somebody knocks the glass of a tank, the resulting "soundwave" in the water can really interrupt the receptors on the lateral line.

Go with what that person said, I've never fried a fish with old sparky before but I really wouldn't expect them to live after it. You must have Bionic Betta or something. Thanks for the reassurance. He wasn't electrocuted; the lamp just glanced the bowl and made quite a racket. His spine has straightened out and his little fins aren't clamped anymore, so I think he's getting back to normal.

Ok thats good news then, I would still add some salt for the stress. That's good to hear that he's getting better!

I'm sure he's just momentarily freaked out. I would be if something that size fell towards me. Joined May 1, Messages 3, Reaction score 0. I've met death, pretty cool guy.

I've been stabbed, shot, hit by a car, caught on fire, and attacked by dogs. I'm freakin' hard to kill, knock on wood, so I pretty much impossible to scare.

Joined Jan 1, Messages 3, Reaction score 0 Location northampton. If the lamp hit the bowl it would have made shock waves which prob did really scare him. How the little fella will be OK.

It that true or making it up, if true good god. Maxta Fishaholic. Wilder said:. Click to expand Lmao, sounds like your lucky to be alive! You must log in or register to reply here. Most reactions Latest Discussions A.

Stringy algae? Antoz 27 minutes ago Algae Removal. Replies 2 Views 3. Could that be an issue? Can I send you a pict of the tank? Troubleshooting problems like this is generally trial and error until you narrow it down. The reason I suggested speaking with local fish keepers is that they will use the same water source and products as you, which can further narrow down problems. Same goes for stripping back the tank. Same goes for taking out everything unnecessary.

It certainly is excessive filtration. Also, those 2 air stones are only going to add to the water movement. If fish are having trouble swimming due to water movement, this could certainly stress them to the point of death. Really, you only need a single Fluval FX6 on a tank this size. However, you could try lowering the flow on both and removing the air stones — your filter outlet should be providing enough surface agitation to maximize oxygenation that the air stones are unnecessary.

On your pre-cycled gravel, was it purchased in a bag dry? Generally you would add gravel from an existing tank that is wet. It would do no harm removing your gravel too, especially since your filters will contain more than enough beneficial bacteria for a tank this size.

And they seem much less stressed. Thanks for your input, you saved the lives of many fish! Thanks so much for the update. All the best with your fish keeping endeavours! Hi Ian This is Iftekhar from Toronto. I took a project for growing aquarium fish at indoor. My target is buy small fish from whole seller, grow it up , and then sell to local Aquarium store.

This is a small scale commercial venture. I have a 70 Gal. But, I made a additional biofilter which is a mini scale of real big biofilter using EPS microbead as biomedia which has a large surface area to colonize large number of nitrifying bacteria.

From tank, water first come to fluval FX4, then goes to my mini biofilter, then back to the fish tank. It was a new tank. After 4 days.. I know it is due to ammonia spike. Also added bacteria. Now ammonia is 1. I think some nitrifying bacteria already developed in my filtration system. I am a bit frustrated.. I am using a fine polishing pad in my FX4. My question is, is this fine filter pad can block nitrifying bacteria flow to my biofilter.

Is this the reason for getting delayed for developing bacterial colony in my biofilter? Is it possible to block the flow of nitrifying bacteria by the fine polishing pad in FX4? Unfortunately, no matter how good your biofilter is, goldfish is way too many for a 70 gallon. Even once your tank has cycled, there will be deaths.

I have never seen a fish-in cycle done with fish before. Unfortunately, I cannot advise you on how to make a 70 gallon safe for goldfish. Hi Ian Thank you so much for your comments and advice. So what I understand from your comments, that, even fine polishing filter pad does not have any effect on colonize and growing up of nitrifying bacterias in bio-medias inside the bio-filter.

I am sharing my another recent experience in last October. I stocked 18 Tilapia fishes in liter water 40 gallon. Average fish size was 32gm each and total 18 fish weight was gm at the time of stocking. After 50 days , I harvested all 16 fishes and Total weight was gm 1. The min. So they gained gms in 50 days. We fed them only gm. FCR is even less than 1. The same biofilter which is now using for my goldfish was used to grow up those 16 Tilapia.

It took about 28 days to get the ammonia level at zero. I did not use any good mechanical filter for the Tilapia. Regular aeration in tank was there.

I did the experiment just to see the efficiency of my bio-filter. Based on that experiment , I started the 2nd experiment with small gold fish. As of today, after 18 days of stocking, 35 goldfish surviving , Ammonia is about 1 ppm and nitrite is 2 , nitrate is Means that bacteria started working.

But those fishes already stressed by high ammonia like 8 at the beginning , they will not survive anyway. I have decided now to wait for complete the cycle and then stock again with very cheap feeder goldfish. Lets see. Beneficial bacteria will certainly live in your polishing pad, but your polishing pad will soon clog and need to be disposed of. Ceramic rings or other biomedia are more suitable.

But in regards to the polishing pad actually affecting the speed of the cycle? You put way too many in the tank.

In a 60 gallon tank, three goldfish can be over crowding — they have a high bioload. You adding that many goldfish was a death sentence, there was never a chance that they would survive unfortunately.

We have supplied more than 10 projects in India. Our systems are using for indoor commercial culture of Tilapia, Catfish and Carp. The system has 30, liter tank x 6 tanks. The average stocking density is about kg of fish at the time of harvest per cubic meter liter of water. Our system includes 80 micron drum filter and and big bio-filter with CO2 stripping system. The bio-filter can handle max. This water replenishing system keeps Nitrate value in safe range.

Recently one of our customer in India started growing ornamental fish in his RAS system in commercial basis. He stocks 3gm size 6 types of baby gold fish 20, pcs.

Grow them up to 12 gm in 65 days and sell it to market. This RAS project runs completely bio-secured environment. This is the 1st. They already done 2 complete batch. The biofilter I made for my Tilapia and Goldfish project, is actually a true small scale model of the big Bio-filter.

I am encouraged by the recent success of the Indian project. My thought was to start a small scale indoor system in Canada for growing up and sell Aquarium fish with maintaining water parameters perfectly. It could be a small earning business if it is successful. Thanks again for your wish. Mortality rate is not necessarily a good indicator of health. I would love to kept up to date on this project. Dear sir I am from Rajiv Gandhi University, Arunachal Pradesh, India and I am working on some of the hill stream fish in captivity, so as I am new to it the fish are acclimatize ,and maintained but as the winter season came the fish started dieing and my observation on special fish Botia rostrata found to be dying out due to diseases so how to maintain them.

As stated in this article, the most common cause of diseases is stress. Unfortunately, you have not given me nearly enough information here to pinpoint what could be wrong. Do you have a heater to combat the temperature changes within the tank? I am having trouble with my betta. His nose is on the bottom of the 10 gallon aquarium and his body is free floating vertically above this.

First step is always to grab an aquarium test kit like this one — record your results. This will help narrow down the problem significantly. Hi there! I looked up what could be wrong and it seems like swim blatters disease. Do you think thats true and do you have any suggestions on how to save him? Did you cycle your tank?

I use this one. I love the little things but I can understand why they keep dying on me. Many problems can be traced back to water parameters. Please refer to Section 1 in the article. You should be testing the water quality yourself with a test kit, to confirm what they are saying is correct. Check out my fishless cycle guide for more information.

What can be the reason for it and earlier few days they looks all fine even some platies give birth too. I am very stressed and sad now. Please explain what can be the reason for it?

Have you tested your water parameters with a test kit? Fish often swim to the surface excluding labyrinth fish, like betta when they are struggling to breath. How would I know if I have enough O2 in my water? Fresh water.

The only aeration is coming from the over the back filter. Unless your fish are swimming to the top of your tank, gasping for air or your tank is overstocked, O2 is the least likely cause of death in a tank — if you are providing surface agitation with an appropriately sized filter, this is typically enough. If you are talking about cleaning with chlorinated water, then near instantly. What if none of the forementioned apply? We have a 10 gal aquarium. We would lose one a month on average and about to lose the last one.

I made sure the new water sat for 24 hrs to become the same temp as the water in the tank. I fed them once a day, i use prime as a declorinator. The fish would start almost laying in the bottom of the tank, and kinda bend in the middle upon death. We cycled the tank before adding fish, started with 4, and added a couple more here and there up to If you have 8 goldfish in a 10 gallon your tank is overstocked. If you have 8 koi in 10 gallon, then even more so. Use a site like Aqavisor can help to an extent with determining stocking capacity, but the best way is to speak to someone at an independent fish store or fish club, who has experience with the fish you plan to keep.

I have a new aquarium , marineland 38 gallon bowfront with penquin biowheel filter. Within 4 hours the tetra were dead. Again , within 6 hours 3 healthy, active skirt tails are dead.

It occurred to me as I watched them that they were struggling with the current created by the filter. Could the flow be what is stressing these ti fish? If so, what to do about that? Nitrate is continuously going up in a cycled tank and a zero is a sign that something is amiss.

As for the current, fish like betta and gourami live in slow moving water and can indeed be stressed by faster moving currents which can lead to death. However given the speed at which your fish died, I am doubtful this is the cause.

I then tested the water every day until the nitrite and nitrate began to register. I allowed the ammonia and nitrite to return to zero, then added some fish. There was an initial spike from adding the fish but this quickly settled. I initially added 6 small mollies to the tank, which were all living peacefully. These were allowed to settle in the tank for 2 weeks, then I added a Betta and 3 panda corys. Everything seemed to be going well, until I came to check on the tank one morning and one of the mollies had died suddenly.

Within a few days, another developed dropsy and also died suddenly. I always use a dechlorinator with each water change. It was also recommended that I use some aquarium salt to help lower the hardness and add some benefit for the fish. I have been doing a water change of the same size every 2 weeks. I performed a full water test yesterday, both ammonia and nitrite are zero, and the nitrate is around 20ppm, KH and GH of around ppm, with a ph of around 8.

All other tank members look great, are acting normally, and feeding well I feed a pinch of fluval bug bites food once a day, and fed them some frozen brine shrimp instead more recently and there is never any leftovers.

I would suggest joining an aquarium forum like fishlore, local aquarium club or discussing with your local fish store, who may be able to shed light on the matter. Here is the thing, it might not even be anything you have done. If all three mollies were purchased at the same time, it IS possible they were already stressed or sick due to handling or conditions prior to being purchased.

When you say full clean, does this include the filter media? If so, you might need to re-cycle your tank. Grab a test kit to make sure. Help please, I just got a 20 gal tank tetra tank with a filter and water temperature. I set up the water stone for aeration. And for only 5 days; 2 fish died goldfish one instantly.

The second unknown. Incredibly devastated. You only have a 20 gallon tank. This is only enough for ONE goldfish. TWO if you are experienced and willing to do extra water changes. Your fish are dying because your tank is overstocked and probably dirty. The air gasping was likely due to low oxygen levels paired with burned gills from high ammonia. You should do some research and then start over.

The fish that died instantly died from some sort of shock or perhaps chlorine poisoning. Tough love- I love the truth. People will you please study up on everything before you purchase anything having to do with living breathing creatures? Thank you. My aunt has an aquarium and has fish dying. She recently had radiation for cancer and had to stick her hand in the aquarium.

Is this what is killing her fish? I have a 25ltr tank and my new filter can go in a tank up to ltr is this to big for my goldfish. My 5 yr old goldfish died 6 days after putting new filter in and since I have bought 3 new ones and all died within a week. If you replaced the filter, you likely crashed the cycle in your tank. If this is the case, you should cycle your aquarium before attempting to add any more fish.

I have a 78 gallon tank with a mix of koi, goldfish and one minnow. The goldfish and the koi seem to get along nicely with the minnow…so you can mix minnows with such large koi. My largest koi Sunflower, is about 7. While Daisy is about 6. And also, my favorite goldfish is Finch! Ive had had him for about 3 and a half years now and he just lost a scale, i can tell because there is a white spot where the scale had been.

I have a 10 gallon tank with 2 pepper Cory catfish and 4 red wagtail platies. My platies are just hanging out at the bottom of the tank hiding behind decorations and within the first few hours of having them my Corys started hanging out at the top side up like they were dead but they swim around and act active occasionally.

Your tank is too small for the amount and type of fish you have and is a recipe for disaster. Nice love it. Thanks so you much you really helped me out. I have lost one every day for about a week. Also algae is growing rapidly in the tank like i have never seen before.

I just took all the plants out, rinsed them and vacuumed the bottom on saturday. Today is monday and it looks worse than it did on saturday. The ammonia is the only thing that is testing high but i have had this problem before without fish lose and the rapid algae growth.

Any advice would be helpful. First point of order is fixing your ammonia problem. In a properly stocked, maintained and cycled tank, ammonia should always be zero. Hello i had 10 gal tank, I had 5 goldfish very healthy for over a year, decided to get the octagon 30 gal tank. Within 3 months my fishes started dying.

Firstly, it amazes me you were able to keep 5 gold fish in a 10 gallon tank for so long. That tank is far too small and even though they were not dying, they were likely suffering. I would suggest reading up on how many gold fish you can keep in a tank. Did you cycle your new tank before adding your goldfish? Also, I would recommend buying an API master test kit and performing the tests yourself. I am new to the fish world. My daughter talked me into a Betta 3 months ago.

He has been great in his bowl the ones with the top for a small child until recently she wanted a few more fish. I upgraded to a 10 gallon tank and added a few neon tetras. I removed him this morning from the tank and back into his own bowl. That was when I left this morning. Thank you!! They would sell less products if people realized they had to wait before they can add fish to their tank.

This is why I recommend local fish stores — they usually stress the importance of cycling as they are in the hobby too. It could possibly be columnaris but your description matches a range of diseases.

Unfortunately, I cannot say for sure whether your betta will make it or not. Hi, I have a 10 gallon tank, cycled it for 2 weeks. Got water tested. Got 2 new fish and they only lived for two weeks. Cleaned the tank again, cycled it again for two weeks. Got two new fish, one died yesterday and now the other one is staying towards the top of the tank. The water tested fine again.

Pleas help. I have a tank before and never had this problem. My kids are devastated about not keeping fish alive. Cycling often takes a lot longer than two weeks.

I suggest following my step by step guide on how to cycle a tank properly , it will give you the best foundations for keeping fish alive. I have 5 neon tetras in a 10 gallon tank.

There is one fish that has always been smaller than the rest. This morning I noticed he was having a very hard time swimming. His fins also look kind of mangled, and he looks rather pale. He is just sitting on the bottom of the tank gasping and having a rough time this afternoon. We had some problems with fin rot with all of our fish around a year ago — but I treated the tank with the tetra lifeguard formula and all was well.

The other fish seem to be doing well as usual. What is going on and what can I do? I put some tetra lifeguard in there this morning — thinking he might be having a problem with a bacteria or fungus of some sort. Unfortunately, I am not qualified to diagnose your fish. It could be a disease, bullying or just the end of his natural life not all fish live to a ripe old age, particularly those born with defects.

Hi, Before 4 days i bought a fish bowl which is capable of 1 gallon water. Along with the bowl i bought 2 goldfishes, one is 5cm long and another is 7cm long. The bigger one eats all the food i drop on water and not allowing the smaller one to get the food. If the smaller one tries to catchup the food, then the bigger-one moves faster and bombards with the smaller one.

Also it biggier one chases the smaller one if it tries to catch the food. The smaller one fails and it is not eatting.. It only eats two or three pieces of small-mustard sized fish food. But the bigger eats countless pieces of fish food. Also i found that after every 12hrs of time both the fishes are comming to the water-air surface line and gasping air.

I found that few wastes are flying inside the water. After i change water, they will swim inside and not comming towards the air-water line and also it eats food.

For every 2 days, am changing water. All your problems stem from a 1 gallon tank being way too small for your goldfish. See point 3 in the above article. In an appropriate sized tank, there would be room for both to get fed and enough oxygen in the water. Ok sir, i will provide new home for them soon.

As a new person to this fishworld, i really feel like am having a right person to guide me. I request you to continue your guidance. I bought a new fish tank. I thought that my two goldfish fishes would be happy. They appear little rude. My bigger goldfish is as-usual happily enjoying the new tank along with two little white koi fishes. But my smaller golden fish as-usual being alone in a side of tank.

Two koi fishes are sometimes hitting and chewing i thing they may give little bites the small goldfish. If this continues, my little goldfish may be stressed-out heavier. Am afraid now. Do white koi fishes eat my little goldfish?.. Can i again put my little goldfish in another 1 gallon bowl? Unfortunately, koi are best kept in ponds, they grow up to be huge.

Once again you have the same problem where you have too many fish for the same size tanks. Goldfish cannot be kept in 1 gallon bowls, you will have the same problems that you had that we discussed before. Hi so I have a 10 gallon tank with one goldfish. I changed water, cleaned the gravel, and changed the filter appropriately and did water tests weekly.

He was beautiful and very happy. He loved to chase my finger around and stare at me lol. A few days ago he started having issues swimming and floated upside down. I looked it up and found swim bladder disorder. It said to have him fast because the main cause was from gasping air while eating food even though I made sure it sank for this very reason However I did not feel comfortable raising the temp or adding salt.

I tried helping him swim right side up but it was useless. He looked perfectly healthy. But his fins were a little torn from rubbing against the gravel so much. While 10 gallons is too small for a gold fish, it sounds like you looked after him to the best of your ability.

This is perhaps the most frustrating thing about fish keeping, even though we do everything right, it might just be the fishes time to go. Birth defects and even diseases beyond our control can take hold and there is little that can be done. If your water parameters were otherwise normal and you did everything you say, then you gave your pet the best life possible within your means.

He has become really sad and either sits at the bottom of the tank not moving for hours or rests high up against the filter! He is hardly moving and I have had one die this way before. Added 2 little bacteria balls to the filter. About 2 weeks ago my fish began to die off 1 by 1. Out of 19 fish I now have 6. I had my water proffesionally tested and it passed with flying colors. Nothing has changed in my maintenance regimen. Just out of nowhere BOOM dead fish and cloudy water.

The latest angel developed dropsy I believe. We dont know what to do. The water recently around a couple months ago stopped turning green all the time and we thought that would help with all the fatalities but no luck. Any suggestions are welcome! My suggestion would be to work your way through this list and cross them off one at a time.

You should be using a liquid test kit to test these I recommend the API master test kit since test strips are both inaccurate and more expensive over time. I have noticed a lot of people buy neons as a first fish…I have found that neons need a well cycled tank of 6 months or more..

I no longer look on them as first fish.. I have found black neons a better fish even if they are larger and not so colourful.. Hello, My sister used to have a frog and a beta fish they lived in the same tank and had a happy life, the frog eventually died and the beta fish not soon after.

Recently we got her new fish, 3 painted glass fish. After only about only 1 week of owning them they started dropping dead one after another each day, and know they are all dead.

We really are unsure of what is happening, the water was clean, they were feed appropriately, but they just died. Tetras got sucked up I to filter while I was at work and came home to two dead tetras. My betta is getting stuck in the current, filter too strong or wrong side. You can reduce the water flow by using a piece of sponge on the intake of the filter. I had one rainbow shark fish, four guppies, and two snails along with four plants and some decorations. For a couple of months they were well and going about their business.

In the past month or so I added three tetras, the shark fish was having a good time chasing them around the tank. I added one guppy that gave birth to two babies and got pregnant again by the male guppies. So I went and bought a Molly to take care of the guppy fry still not here yet by the way. They lived harmoniously together for a few weeks, then all of the sudden in the span of three days they all died, except for the baby guppies for now.

Petco is the last place I would go to for fish advice. You should have an aquarium test kit on hand I recommend the api master fresh kit , this will give you a good idea of what your water quality is — which is responsible for the vast majority of fish deaths.

However, based on what you have written, do have a suspicion that overstocking is the problem, leading to poor water quality. A test kit will confirm this. I do have the test kit you speak of, the only thing the test kit showed was a 7. The rest came back normal.

I have also bought the ph reducer by imagitarium, and have tried to bring the ph down. I am now left with one guppy baby the other one died between the time I wrote this and your response , one pregnant guppy which is hovering around the heating element , one other guppy and the Molly. What do I do now? How do I keep them alive?

Also how many fish can I have in a 20 gallon tank? The amount of fish will entirely be determined by the type of fish. For guppies, the general advice is fish per 10 gallons of water.

Good morning, Ammonia has been around 0ppm, nitrite has always been around 0ppm, and nitrate has been around 0ppm. Is it possible one of the new fish I got was sick and killed the other ones? Unless you are doing non-stop water changes, or have chemical media that will absorb nitrates, it should continue to rise non-stop in a healthy tank.