HELP SH died not sure why???

[oogie]

i was out all night and dident get home until a wile ago and noticed my channa pleurophthalma was dead , he was 6" and lived in a 40g with a 5-6" oscar and a 7" channa micro peltis(i know the tank is small but they all got along good and it was just wile we are moveing)iam just not sure why he died he ate good along with the other fish and was realy active, a few months ago he was acting strange when i found a small peice of metal(like a radio antena) about 2" in the gravel but when i removed it he was back to normal and i havent noticed anything else or any over agreshion from the other fish, iam worried sence i was planning on picking up a big clown loach(about 5" or so)tommorow and i planed on putting him in that tank untile we move but now iam worried, iam not so good at testing my water(cant see vary good)but i just did a 10g change a few days ago and just now when i cleaned out the dead SH so i dont think it was bad, just wondering if these SH are more prone to water qualitey isuse then other SH/fish or disease? any coments would be good thanks

 

[jelly]

Its quite well known that Snakeheads are very good at living in less then perfect water conditions. This of course doesn't mean it ideal. One thing they don't do well with is rapid water perameter changes I.E. a PH change.

 

[NymoKilla]

Sorry for your loss.... I have to Channa Marulius , lost one got sick. And now it is not long before i loose anoe more.. They figth as h... and the biggest takes all the food , bites the smaler one all day. He is hurt pretty bad on the side of his head og the finns.. Thats life i know, but its no fun anyway..

 

[Euge]

He could be getting bullied by the micro. I dunno tho. My stewartii's have been fine all week and are suddenly acting all weird too. I hope i dont lose them coz i rarely see them round these parts.

 

[matty]

Maybe it was organ failure if the fish was healthy, in good water etc. The other option could be a pH crash as Jelly suggested. What are your water params, particularly your kH? Sorry for your loss

 

[oogie]

thanks, it dident look like it was being beet up but iam not sure why it died but the oscar and other SH are fine, one thing is that i dident gravel vac for a quite a wile then did it afew days ago(and removed some because iam going BB)iam wondering if mabie there was something under in the gravel?(its about 1 1/2" deep)and if i remove all the gravel today will adversley efect the tank?

 

[Euge]

i doubt its something in your gravel. It could just be some internal organ failure like matty suggested. Sorry for your loss

 

[PhullTank57]

Sorry for the loss, oogie. my condolences.

Couple questions... were you feeding the pleuros live? (feeder fish?) What was the temperature (79-84 degree F ) range? Was your oxygen levels high or low in your tank??

 

[mercury904]

well if your feeding live fish it may be one of the culprit..some fishes eat dirty stuffs and feed them to your snakes...i know snakes are hardy fish but i guess if they are used on clean water then you should do partial regular water change to dillute ammonia/nitrate...I know snakes can tolerate low oxygen levels but i still use 2 air pump to make my tank well aerated because a well aerated tank reduces the risk of microbial disease...just remmber even hardy fishes like an ideal aquarium

 

[superkimchiman]

from what i learned. u can never do water changes more than 20% for a snakehead. they are real anal about ph changes.

so this is what i did.

i over filter my tank to a point where it almost seems too much.
(120 gallon filter system on a 60 gallon)

and i never changed my water... YES thats right..... NEVER.
had the SH for a year now.

the water lvl goes down on the tank due to evaporation, so thats when i juss add more water to the tank.

thats all and my SH never gotten sick or anything. "but the fish has major mood swings" cuz i think its a female.



also my 80G tank with 4 gachuas' water is filled with algae. "its green" but ever since that happened, the fish are more active and healthy.
(i separated one of the runts in the group cuz he was dying. but when i juss gave up hope and decided to let him play with his friends before he dies, he got all better and now he's the biggest one in the tank. 9" =P)