Fish died while eating Frozen food

[Sinestro30]

Hi Everyone,

just had the strangest thing happen. One of my blue chromis died while eating a cube of frozen mysis.
I have 7 in QT. Been treating with cupramine and general cure. They’ve all been eating fine but breathing a little heavy since I did general cure, but otherwise active. I just put half a cube of frozen mysis into the tank and they all started feeding. Next thing one of them starts swimming upside down. Darts to one side of the tank and then just goes completely lifeless. I can only think that maybe a little bit of partly frozen mysis got stuck in its mouth? Anyone else ever had this happen? Very strange.

 

[polyppal]

Brain freeze? (Sorry couldn’t help it)...

Highly doubt the food killed him it was probably just coincidental timing. Heavy breathing can indicated a number of issues like an ammonia spike or flukes.

 

[Sinestro30]

Brain freeze? (Sorry couldn’t help it)...

Highly doubt the food killed him it was probably just coincidental timing. Heavy breathing can indicated a number of issues like an ammonia spike or flukes.

Ye I would agree with you, normally I would think it was lack of oxygen/ammonia etc. But with something like that I would expect the fish to become lethargic, not be interested in food and slowly go down hill over a few hours. This all happened in about 15 seconds.

 

[polyppal]

Ye I would agree with you, normally I would think it was lack of oxygen/ammonia etc. But with something like that I would expect the fish to become lethargic, not be interested in food and slowly go down hill over a few hours. This all happened in about 15 seconds.

Yeah will be interesting to see if anyone else can chime in with a similar experience.

I just saw my 500$ borbonius eat a tiny piece of foil that was in the frozen food the other day, so I understand your frozen food stress!

 

[ehealy13]

Hi Everyone,

just had the strangest thing happen. One of my blue chromis died while eating a cube of frozen mysis.
I have 7 in QT. Been treating with cupramine and general cure. They’ve all been eating fine but breathing a little heavy since I did general cure, but otherwise active. I just put half a cube of frozen mysis into the tank and they all started feeding. Next thing one of them starts swimming upside down. Darts to one side of the tank and then just goes completely lifeless. I can only think that maybe a little bit of partly frozen mysis got stuck in its mouth? Anyone else ever had this happen? Very strange.

Perhaps a stupid question, but do you thaw the frozen food before feeding? I'm wondering if a piece was too big to swallow, but lodged to a point it couldn't be spit up?

I've also had foil fall into the tank before I started defrosting the frozen, which I was fortunate enough to get before my fish did.

Just spit-balling here.


Ed

 

[Jekyl]

How big of a QT tank is it? With 7 fish in there I'd lean toward ammonia, O2 or stress

 

[Sinestro30]

I just chucked half a cube in to thaw in the tank. They usually just nibble round the edge as it defrosts. But ye I was thinking the same, maybe it bit off a bit that was still frozen and then got it stuck.
Jekyl - the tank is 20 gallon. They are only small chromis and the ammonia was barely detectable. But I think something along the lines of low O2 or a p.H. crash after using general cure stressed the fish to the point that a sudden shock caused it to die.

 

[ehealy13]

I just chucked half a cube in to thaw in the tank. They usually just nibble round the edge as it defrosts. But ye I was thinking the same, maybe it bit off a bit that was still frozen and then got it stuck.
Jekyl - the tank is 20 gallon. They are only small chromis and the ammonia was barely detectable. But I think something along the lines of low O2 or a p.H. crash after using general cure stressed the fish to the point that a sudden shock caused it to die.

It's worth considering defrosting. I just grab some tank water, add vitamins, and 30 minutes later I dump it into the tank. It also lets me grab any foil (etc.) that may fall in, inadvertently.