What's the Most Gruesome Fish Situation You've Had?

[GentleGiantsCichlidKeeper]

Hello everyone. What's the worst situation you or someone you know has encountered in fish keeping? This could be anything from a water leak that killed all your fish to a thought to be gentle fish killing all your fish and hurting the tank itself. I'm excited to read the responses!

 

[Jexnell]

Had a heater die and kill two Oscar's and a Blue eyes pleco
Had a 55gal acrylic tank blow a seam, I heard it happen and was able to save the fish
Twice I over flowed the tank while water changes. Not major, just a couple towels worth of water.

 

[GentleGiantsCichlidKeeper]

So for mine , it was a few months ago with my then younger Blood Parrots and a female Jewel Cichlid. I had went to my LFS and they had recommended me Jewel Cichlids as a tankmate for my BPs and that the female fish in particular was even more laid back than the rest and would be a perfect match. So, I got her and everything was going fine for a month or two. Then, she slowly started taking over the tank bullying my BP's into corners so she could eat all the food, claiming the caves that they had already established, etc. As I previously stated, my BP's were younger and only introduced to the tank a little over a month earlier than she was so they weren't as established and old enough to really protect their areas with caution as they do now , and defend themselves. It got so bad that she basically ruled the tank and the other fish stayed in corners. So, I removed her and put her into another tank to cool down and the BPs went back to normal. I decided to try it again and I put Trina ( The Jewel) back into the tank with them but I guess my BP's decided they we done with her and both of them proceeded to sneak attack her when she was eating and push her into the wall of the tank and constantly ram her swimming full speed. They seem to each have taken turns and the other guard the areas she could run to. She died the same day and I never tried this again.....

 

[Deadeye]

If we’re talking blood and guts gruesome, than very much so. My leporinus kills for sport, he shaves scales off others for fun.
Piranha + tankmates = fish dissection. He took the back half of 2 gouramis and a Texas that was still swimming afterwards.
My pacu removed everything from the tank except a silver dollar and 3 leporinus. Ever seen a perfect bala shark skeleton?
And mbunas be mbunas...

Disease wise I’ve had velvet in both fresh and salt. It’s not pretty.
My mbuna have a parasite now that has killed 4 in less than a week.

Nothing on equipment faliure except for a single silver dollar during a power outage.

Lastly, a red belly piranha going head first into a glass wall and dying of a concussion.

 

[Deadeye]

So for mine , it was a few months ago with my then younger Blood Parrots and a female Jewel Cichlid. I had went to my LFS and they had recommended me Jewel Cichlids as a tankmate for my BPs and that the female fish in particular was even more laid back than the rest and would be a perfect match. So, I got her and everything was going fine for a month or two. Then, she slowly started taking over the tank bullying my BP's into corners so she could eat all the food, claiming the caves that they had already established, etc. As I previously stated, my BP's were younger and only introduced to the tank a little over a month earlier than she was so they weren't as established and old enough to really protect their areas with caution as they do now , and defend themselves. It got so bad that she basically ruled the tank and the other fish stayed in corners. So, I removed her and put her into another tank to cool down and the BPs went back to normal. I decided to try it again and I put Trina ( The Jewel) back into the tank with them but I guess my BP's decided they we done with her and both of them proceeded to sneak attack her when she was eating and push her into the wall of the tank and constantly ram her swimming full speed. They seem to each have taken turns and the other guard the areas she could run to. She died the same day and I never tried this again.....

As far as bps and jewels go, mine was actually saved from one. For months at petsmart a jewel had a whole bunch of bps pinned. Mine is one of the survivors.

 

[Joshuakahan]

Hello everyone. What's the worst situation you or someone you know has encountered in fish keeping? This could be anything from a water leak that killed all your fish to a thought to be gentle fish killing all your fish and hurting the tank itself. I'm excited to read the responses!

When I was first getting into the hobby and knew nothing I had a fire mouth about 6 months and was given the green light to add a pike cichlid, not sure on the type but it went from 2”-6” inches in a couple months. I came home from school to see the fire mouth tail first half way in the piles mouth. I panicked and banged on the glass and the pike spit the fire mouth out and now I had a fire mouth swimming around with nothing left from about halfway back except for entrails hanging out.

 

[GentleGiantsCichlidKeeper]

When I was first getting into the hobby and knew nothing I had a fire mouth about 6 months and was given the green light to add a pike cichlid, not sure on the type but it went from 2”-6” inches in a couple months. I came home from school to see the fire mouth tail first half way in the piles mouth. I panicked and banged on the glass and the pike spit the fire mouth out and now I had a fire mouth swimming around with nothing left from about halfway back except for entrails hanging out.

How long did he survive that way?

 

[CaptainAquatics]

I don’t think I have ever had a WORSE case scenario, but I have been in some pretty bad situations.

I think anyone who has been in the hobby more than 5 minutes has probably overflowed a tank before, including me, multiple times....

once a few years ago, when I was just starting to get larger and more complex fish, I put a bichir with some goldfish to grow out....(to my credit it went fine for several months, however now two of the goldfish have missing eyes...)

A few months ago my favorite flowerhorn bubbles passed away because of stupid flowerhorn genetic issues. That one wasn’t my fault but I really miss him. He had a good 2 years.

One time one of my oscars jumped out of the tank while I was feeding them and hurt his eye (I got him back in and he has fully recovered, no long term damage).

I had my 75 gallon tank give me a dripping leak. Luckily I caught it can got the fish out and a new tank in before the leak got really bad (although while carrying the tank out it still had a small amount of water and while carrying it the leak worsened and water went everywhere).

I once had a large tire track eel (10”) in a 20 gallon QT tank as it was the biggest QT I had at the time and he ate the other fish in the QT (10 or so mollies and platies) all in one night then proceeded to escape and pass away the following day.

Those are all the ones I can clearly remember, some of them my fault (like the bichir, and the eel eating the other fish. The lid was extremely tight though and even had 4 pieces of firewood on top so IDK how he got out), some of them not. But you learn from experience more than anything in this hobby.

 

[Joshuakahan]

How long did he survive that way?

I pulled him and froze it, so I don’t know how long he would have

 

[Jim bean 20055]

We had a power outage and my peacock bass were outside in the winter and proceeded to kill 4 of them