What's the most grusome death one of your fish has suffered?

[Wulfonce]

I had an Oscar with 2 bluegills. I heard some knocking around in the tank one night and walked down stairs to find one of the bluegills almost dead floating on the surface with a ripped gill plate which was bleeding profusely, a tail which was totally gone, most of the scales gone, and missing an eyeball.
I put him out of his misery moments later.

Funny though cause the Oscar seems to love the other Bluegill. He's been a tank mate with him for almost 2 years now.

 

[lujor]

I accidentally stepped on a danio that jumped. Also had a black moor get its eyes popped off and eaten.

Yeah, those eyes are begging to get abused. I fed one to my RBPs years ago and the things head got guillotine chomped so that his face was a clean cross-section with just the back quarter of his eyes and a weird tube (esophogus?) in middle that looked like it was breathing/talking. Thing was missing the first half-inch or more of his original length. It lived like that for many hours. RBPs are cruel.

 

[Industrial]

I don't really have many gruesome stories from my fish, but my uncle had juvie RBPs years back and the smallest tried to swim through a fake castle and his body got stuck in the window on it when he tried to swim back out. The other couple piranhas ate his face to the bone.

 

[knifegill]

OMG. This thread will give me nightmares.

The worst I can think of happened to my angelfish fry. The mesh over the HOB intake was clogged. I had rinsed in for many weeks and it was getting worse and worse with time, so that it had become useless and permanently clogged no matter what I did. I looked at the angels and I looked at the intake holes and thought, "Hmm, I suppose if one really tried, it could get through, but it seems safe enough." I stood and watched for a minute and all was well. And an hour later, I came back to 20 angelfish stuck helplessly to an aquaclear sponge, all dead but whole. Looked like suffocation. So sad, they were pretty and healthy, too.

 

[Sab_Fan]

Swim bladder disorder does nasty, nasty things.

I second this one . . . it did a number on one of my convicts, and also on a blue acara . . . I euthanized the convict, but I tried every idea I could think of to help the acara, and he died anyway

 

[knifegill]

I guess I should mention all the bettas I've had. Gruesome, painful ends, always. Virtually every betta I've ever owned has died of sudden onset dropsy. No other fish fall ill when in a community, just the betta. I no longer purchase bettas because I've learned the hard way. I don't know what's more gruesome than having your tissues swell until death sets in. I euthanize right away now, but the first few I tried to save. So I guess those first few bettas had it the worst, dying slowly in medicated water. *sigh* They're among my favorite fish, too, and there's little I don't know about them.

 

[Sab_Fan]

oh, forgot the other gruesome death I watched, which was my oscar after he ate a pictus catfish . . . he ate one once before, but spit it out, so I figured he'd learned his lesson . . . but sure enough, he ate the other, swallowed it, and then died slowly from internal injuries

he lived for about two days . . . the main thing I took from that was I should have euthanized him as soon as I realized what was happening, but there's always that thought that he might pull thru . . .

 

[knifegill]

Ouch. Death by catfish. Not as rare as it ought to be for Oscars!

 

[Sab_Fan]

Virtually every betta I've ever owned has died of sudden onset dropsy. No other fish fall ill when in a community, just the betta. I no longer purchase bettas because I've learned the hard way.

I had this problem with betta too, and it sucks . . . the last betta I had, however, died very peacefully last month, after about 3 years of happy living . . .

I think the key is limited feeding: he got 3-4 pellets of Atison's betta food, 2x/day during the week . . . no food on weekends or holidays . . . never any sign of dropsy, just a normal healthy fish

but watching a betta die of dropsy is very sad indeed . . .

 

[Industrial]

I couldn't edit my last post, but I just remembered that I do have a gruesome story.

When I first got my moray eel he ate one of my dragon gobys to the bone.