Life's really fragile

[FINWIN]

I lost my golden rainbow Pepper today. Was doing a water change and sand vaccum and found her tangled in plants along the back wall. Her body had a weird black area on one side. Nobody had picked at her.

She was alive late yesterday but seemed off. Her color was very dark/grayish. she'd turned dark in the past but this was different. The Oscar messed with her a little but she normally would brush it off and scoot away. She had none of her usual speed and got tagged. Then she found an area to rest in the sand.

Pepper was just under 6 inches. Damn. I have no idea what happened. ☹

 

[Deadeye]

Sorry to hear.
Wasn’t she hanging by the nest of hrp? Maybe Pip had enough of it.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

So sorry for the loss.
How old was she? Do you think it could have just been old age?

 

[FJB]

Very sorry for the loss. Always hard to take.

 

[jjohnwm]

A sad loss; not sure which is worse: watching a prized fish wither and fade from some visible but mysterious illness, or having one abruptly and unexpectedly perish like this.

It happens all the time with people; someone will suffer a stroke, heart attack or other sudden affliction and die either at once or almost immediately thereafter. Medical science will identify the cause after the effect, which does nothing at that point except add to the knowledge base.

With fish, these things will remain, in probably 99+% of cases, mysteries. Your fish was obviously well-grown, fully adult and perhaps at the end of its natural lifespan?

This is a better way to go than many of the alternatives.

 

[FINWIN]

I'm not sure what the lifespan is of hrps. But Pepper wasn't old, I bought her as a 1 1/2" juvie in '20. But something crossed my mind it may have been an injury. Last week I noticed she had a 'ding' on the side. Off and on she would get dings on her head and they would heal no problem. In fact I was going to post something funny about her newest ding. Turns out it may have been an internal injury caused by a tankmate or hitting something. That's the same side she had the weird blackish area where I found her. But she was acting perfectly normal up until the day before I found her. Hours before she clearly was 'off.' My red rainbow Salt has turned solid black. Weird. It may be mood related.

Not a good run for me lately. At least everyone else is solid and healthy. Will be posting more positive stuff off and on.

 

[FINWIN]

Sorry to hear.
Wasn’t she hanging by the nest of hrp? Maybe Pip had enough of it.

Hard to say, they had a brief co-op that didn't last. But I'm convinced something happened because it was so sudden. I find it hard to believe she just pitched over out of the clear.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

I'm not sure what the lifespan is of hrps. But Pepper wasn't old, I bought her as a 1 1/2" juvie in '20. But something crossed my mind it may have been an injury. Last week I noticed she had a 'ding' on the side. Off and on she would get dings on her head and they would heal no problem. In fact I was going to post something funny about her newest ding. Turns out it may have been an internal injury caused by a tankmate or hitting something. That's the same side she had the weird blackish area where I found her. But she was acting perfectly normal up until the day before I found her. Hours before she clearly was 'off.' My red rainbow Salt has turned solid black. Weird. It may be mood related.

Not a good run for me lately. At least everyone else is solid and healthy. Will be posting more positive stuff off and on.

Glad to hear that everyone else is still doing well!

Do you have any equipment running that could have hurt her? I ask because I've had an uncovered water pump injure several kuhli loaches, so I'm thinking you may be in a similar situation.

 

[FINWIN]

Glad to hear that everyone else is still doing well!

Do you have any equipment running that could have hurt her? I ask because I've had an uncovered water pump injure several kuhli loaches, so I'm thinking you may be in a similar situation.

I don't think so. Pepper never hung out near the powerheads once she got big. The rainbows and hrps had territory squabbles all the time over the logs. I added logs but then everyone had 'preferences' and got picky. Only Boss the bp could bust up the squabbling consistently.