fishy grand mal seizure?

Hau kolas..

Well last night my prized male Protomelas taeniolatus "Red Empress" cichlid
died suddenly and apparently quite violently..my wife was in the room, and
while not watching the onset,here's what she describes happenned to him:
roughly 2 hours after tank lights turned off, sudden violent splashing
followed by a dart to the surface, actually escaping the water, hit the
canopy and fell back into tank belly up, stone cold dead. She says his mouth
was gaping the entire time (15 seconds?). She put the dead fish in the
freezer, as I was at work, and unfortunately there it stayed all night, so
now I'm waiting for it to de-ice to see if anything is obvious. The fish had
been in apparent good health, in fact dominating the tank (ramshorn snails &
other africans as tankmates) quite easily, coloring was great, behavior and
feeding good, no external signs of infection or parasites. Last water
change had been 2 days ago (routine water change & gravel vac). currently
water parameters tests: Ammonia=0, nitrite=.125, nitrate=10 , ph=7.4, dkh=5
dgh=10, temp =81.7F. Slight elevation of the nitrite, otherwise "normal" for
this tank across the board. pH may be low in your opinion, yet that has been
consistant also. The tank is just over a year old, the fish perhaps 1.5
years, this fish has been in this tank since original cycle. other fish
appear and act a bit frazzled at the absence of the dominator, but otherwise
everyone looks none the worse for the wear..any ideas? I'm going tosee how
the fish is de-icing and maybe open it up for a look-see..appreciate any
advice you can give me.

lila pilamaya
**FREE PELTIER NOW!!**

"Scott Far Thunder" wrote in message
...
Hau kolas..

Well last night my prized male Protomelas taeniolatus "Red Empress"
cichlid
died suddenly and apparently quite violently..snip ..any ideas? I'm
going tosee how
the fish is de-icing and maybe open it up for a look-see..appreciate
any
advice you can give me.

lila pilamaya
**FREE PELTIER NOW!!**

Sorry for your loss. My guess would be that he saw something (perhaps a
shadow crossing over the tank, or a bug on the cover) and made a run at
it. Impact against the glass cover caused too much damage (cerebral or
along the spinal cord where it connects to the brain cavity). Water
conditions seem fine & diseases usually act in a more progressive way.
--
www.NetMax.tk

"Scott Far Thunder" wrote in message
...
Hau kolas..

Well last night my prized male Protomelas taeniolatus "Red Empress"
cichlid
died suddenly and apparently quite violently..my wife was in the room, and
while not watching the onset,here's what she describes happenned to him:
roughly 2 hours after tank lights turned off, sudden violent splashing
followed by a dart to the surface, actually escaping the water, hit the
canopy and fell back into tank belly up, stone cold dead. She says his
mouth

Why he slammed his head is besides the point... he got knocked out, like
they do with baseball bats to baby seals. Sorry.

--
JK Sinrod
Sinrod Stained Glass Studios
www.sinrodstudios.com
Coney Island Memories
www.sinrodstudios.com/coneymemories

|| Hau kolas..
|| I'm going tosee how the fish is de-icing and maybe
|| open it up for a look-see..appreciate any advice you can give me.
||
|| lila pilamaya
|| **FREE PELTIER NOW!!**

Sorry dude, I had one of my peacocks do that... actually did it several
times before the final episode... was kinda sad to watch....

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I had a Mickey Mouse Platy that ran into the side of the tank and knocked
herself out for a few seconds and died two days later. I don't know if it
was a result of the hard blow to the head or not. However, I had another
fish that began swimming very violently. He zipped from one side of the
tank to the other with speeds that was unbelievable. He would also do funny
swirls and zip to the top of the water as well. This went on for about 15
minutes to mine and my husband's horror. Then he just stopped moving and
sank to the bottom and stopped breathing almost as soon as he touched the
bottom. I took him to the LPS along with a water sample. They said his
physical appearance was good and so was my water. They did say that it
sounded a lot like Swirling. I bought Quick Cure and treated the water for
three days waited two days and treated again. This also took care of the
ich problem that had started. I haven't had any problems since. I don't
know if that's due to the treatment or not. You may want to do a treatment
so that if it is a parasite you don't lose any more fish.


Lisa


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