My fish died :(

[Bastia]

I've had my clown knife for about a year, didn't know much about them and the fish store didn't say much so I just got it..he grew to over a foot and he just died . I did a water change just last weekend and he looked fine so the water was fine, all my other fish are fine so I dunno what happened to him. he had a ton of red spots on him when I took him out, got some crappy cell phone pics, if anyone has any idea what happened to him I'd appreciate any input

 

[peewee]

sorry for your loss.

 

[JML1997]

Did it have any tankmates? How big of a tank was he in?

 

[Bastia]

I had 3 severums and 1 jewel cichlid with it...none of 'em fought it or anything. they're in a 75gallon tank..which I know is way too small but the fish store didn't tell me how big any of 'em would get, had an fx5 filtering it tho...

 

[JML1997]

Hard to tell, jewels can be pretty aggressive though..

 

[JacobWhitley]

could be a bacterial infection and the red dots look like they could be ammonia burns

 

[alexpie001]

you should test your water, what are the params?

 

[Bastia]

the jewel cichlid was scared of him so I doubt she did anything and I just seen him a week ago and he looked fine and happy, I'd think he woulda showed some signs of an infection...and my water parameters, I dunno I do a water change every week or so so I just assume they're fine, and none of my other fish have any burns or anything :\

thanks for the replies btw, just confused as to how he could've died so instantly

 

[kdrun76]

How much water are you changing every week? You really need to do some water tests right away. That should always be the first reaction to finding a dead fish.

I am not sure what those red spots are, but they don't give me the warm fuzzies. Parasite infection of some variety is my first guess. Probably not ammonia burns, not on scaled tissue, those would be on the gills.

I am very interested in hearing what your Nitrates are. Something in my guts says DOC's are through the roof in this tank.

 

[Jon M]

Not all fish show signs before parasitic infections or bacterial infections. Sometimes it can sneak in a day and the fish is dead the next. With that stock in a 75g tank you would need to do very large weekly wc and quite posssibly bi-weekly IMO to keep the nitrates below 20ppm ie: a non toxic level for your stock. It's quite possible it's from prolonged nitrate exposure/poisoning. Some fish are just more resilient than others which would attest to your other stock still being alive. Though this is just a theory and without proper water perimeter results there really isn't any way of knowing. Though when I see a large fish like a CK that belongs in a much larger tank overstocked, he randomly dies, and the water isn't tested on a regular basis, my immediate first thought is likely poor water conditions. Assuming the water has good readings simply doesn't cut it in the long run.

@kdrun76 what's DOC stand for?