Accidentally killed my golden white cloud mountain minnow

[Karen B.]

Greetings.

I feel so terrible- I am new at fish keeping. Decided to pick this hobby to try and feel better - to change my mind from focussing on my chronic disease, anxiety, etc.

Sadly... I care so much, I am oversensitive, I want to do so well, I donˋt want to cause any harm or stress to my fish... I end up really anxious. Poor Candi must be so annoyed with my all questions.

And at the end, I think I did the opposite and made the passing of one fish much more stressful then it should have been. Yesterday my golden White Cloud Mountain Minnow got spooked by something and swam up and then down really quickly, crashing on the substrate. It looked dazzled after that so I closed all the light and let the group settle in a early night to reduce the stress.

This morning it was just swimming at the top, barely moving, not schooling with the others, its mouth wide opened. Not much reaction - one fish even bumped into him. I didn’t want him to suffer, or suffocate or die of starvation and didn’t know if maybe he had something stuck in its mouth. I put him in a small cup, tried to look in its mouth, using a tiny object to poke gently- there wasn’t anything that I could see. I could close its mouth but it would reopen in the water. And the poor thing started trashing and wiggling... I think I half killed him by stressing him out so much trying to help. At the end I euthanized him with clover oil but it pains me to think I put him through so much in its last moment.

Some would say it’s just a fish, but I don’t agree. No living creatures should suffer. Anyway, not too sure what to do next time if something happens to my fish - try to help it with the chance of making it worst and high level of stress... or letting nature run its course.

Thank you for listening. I figure I would give Candi a break...

[Brandy]

Welcome Karen. I think I might be the reason Cory took pity on Candi and created this forum so we can all support each other. I asked a billion questions, was stressed all the time, and didn't have any local fish keeping friends to talk to...The forum was suspiciously timely! 😆

This quarantine is not making life easy, and something like keeping fish feels like a tiny bit of control in an out of control world. But when you are learning there can be things that go wrong.

I would put forth an alternative thought here--the fish did his crazy swimming thing possibly because he had something else going on already, that you did not cause. He may have damaged his jaw subsequently. Euthanasia was probably the best and most responsible thing you could have done. In the future, however, if you want to inspect a fish, a really low dose of clove oil can sedate them and make the examination less stressful for both of you. 

[FriendlyLoach]

Yeah, I totally agree with you about the whole "Some would say it’s just a fish, but I don’t agree. No living creatures should suffer." I highly don't you were the cause of this. A lot of fish stores buy from farms where the fish are already sick. What I would recommend is to treat your existing fish with Aquarium Co-op's trio pack. I would also do the same with any new fish, just rember to do it in a separate quarantine tank. To say the truth I lost a fish today and I feel bad as well. Hang in there!

[RovingGinger]

You are doing the best you can, which is more than these same fish would see in nature. In nature, death is the norm. It’s why fish have so many babies and why plants propagate so easily (especially when torn apart or eaten). Yes, no living being should suffer unnecessarily in our care, but we can’t prevent it all. 

[Karen B.]

Thank you so much for your kind words everyone! 
 

@BrandySo between the both of us, Candi needs a raise! Thank you for your advices and comforting words.

[FriendlyLoach]

Sure!