FML lost my TI Eclipse BD this morning..

[greenerinks]

Bad news... again. This year has been pretty tough on my monster fish. I noticed two days ago that my BD was breathing irregularly and not begging for food. Noticed that some slime was peeling off and discoloration beginning to show. Immediately I saw that this is telltale signs of illness so I did an emergency 25% WC followed by another 40% WC 12 hours later. I was waiting to see if he was doing better but I noticed his tail starting to stiff up. Ultimately just few hours ago, he had his last breath.

Quite bummed about it, raised from a pup.... he had a great personality too. All of my other fish are doing ok.. what's strange is that right before the BD got sick, my albino Adonis died out of the blue and was maybe in there for a little while. After doing my WCs the water is stable at 7.3 pH and 45 nitrate ppm. I didn't get the water when I found him sick as all other fish is healthy..

Poor guy.. just about 36cm across the disc. Survived many wounds inflicted by my gatf and he ended up being the alpha eater in there until just a couple days ago. RIP..

 

[Bluebarry]

dam sorry to hear

 

[Just Toby]

I am sorry to hear this. I hate unexplained losses. I am sure the 45ppm nitrate was not too high. PH seems fine. I would keep testing the water for as many parameters as possible.

How do you fill the tank? I wonder if Chloramine had been added to the tap water? They do it here in the UK from time to time to kill off bacteria etc...normal Dechlorinator does not remove it.

 

[moosemj]

Sorry to hear. This hobby can be rough at times.

 

[Woefulrelic]

Experienced a similar loss not long ago. It gets easier... I hope. Sorry to see you lose such a nice ray.

 

[Capt_Rick_Dixie]

ughh. My stomach hurts just thinking about losing a ray like that. I'm sorry to hear that. If you think back can you think of any strange behaviors you've noticed in the last few weeks? Maybe they could have been a sign of what was to come.

 

[greenerinks]

Thanks for the supportive comments. I doubt it's chloramine... although I've never tested for it before but I have been doing my water changes exactly the same way for years. Tube out to the garden and then hose back into tank at a slightly slower speed as to not fluctuate the temperature too much too fast. None of the other tankmates had any issues and there is a pair of marble Motoros in there doing just fine. I couldn't tell any strange behavior in the past few weeks because he usually is super interactive begging for food relentlessly.. about 3 days ago I noticed he wasn't doing that and realized his slime coat was kind of peeling and breathing heavy. Then slight discoloration of the black skin and I knew something was way wrong, my first reaction is to do a WC followed by a slightly bigger one next morning. The nitrate could have been much higher as I only got to testing it post WC. But still in my experience, if it was really a severe problem with the water all my other fish in there would be having some issues I.E. Tigrinis as they've been quite sensitive in my past experience. The only thing that came out of the blue that day was the fact that my albino adonis pleco cleaner all of a sudden died and was found getting munched on by the BD... they've been tankmates for over a year so I know it's not like the BD attacked it. Quite strange... indeed.

This hobby is quite heart wrenching and pricey while at it. My list of lost monsters this year is excruciating. >_<

 

[FishBeast]

I'm so sorry.

 

[CichlaLoverer]

Sorry for your loss

 

[Ray-z]

Feel your pain bro! Thanks for sharing, must have been difficult. Nothing worse than losing a big, expensive fish, especially one as nice as that. Fish are family. Gutted for you.