I came down this morning and my 10" albino tinfoil barb was dead. I fished it out and checked it over. No trauma marks of any kind. Scale and fin perfect. Basically no signs of any external problems whatsoever.
All my other fish are absolutely fine. It is a peaceful com tank and there is never any bullying or predation. It is a bare bottom tank so it hasn't choked on gravel. It was about 4 years old so it's certainly not an old age thing. Water parameters are always good and in any case, if I suddenly did have a lethal spike in anything then there's other less hardier fish than a tinfoil barb in the tank that would have gone belly up too. Ditto if it was a sudden electrical fault. I've racked my brains and come up with nothing.
In times of sudden and unexplained fish deaths like this when do you stop blaming yourself and just chalk it down to one of those things?
On a positive note, the sudden passing of this fish has opened up a new beginning. The bio load it has freed up means I can introduce some more clown loach so rather than moping in self pity I am feeling more upbeat now.
All my other fish are absolutely fine. It is a peaceful com tank and there is never any bullying or predation. It is a bare bottom tank so it hasn't choked on gravel. It was about 4 years old so it's certainly not an old age thing. Water parameters are always good and in any case, if I suddenly did have a lethal spike in anything then there's other less hardier fish than a tinfoil barb in the tank that would have gone belly up too. Ditto if it was a sudden electrical fault. I've racked my brains and come up with nothing.
In times of sudden and unexplained fish deaths like this when do you stop blaming yourself and just chalk it down to one of those things?
On a positive note, the sudden passing of this fish has opened up a new beginning. The bio load it has freed up means I can introduce some more clown loach so rather than moping in self pity I am feeling more upbeat now.
