Have you had an odd accidental fish death?

[Tedrock]

So Nerms help me with my frustration.  I came home from work to check the fish tanks and there is one of my proud platinum angel fish lying at the bottom of the tank.  He was THE male of ten fry to mature and become a pair with the only female to breed.  The odd death - he swallowed coarse sand substrate.  When I took him out of the tank his mouth was full of black sand.  He was weighed down to the bottom of the tank by a full stomach of sand.  I am not really looking for a breakdown of this incident just wondering about other odd deaths like these that I never anticipated.  Let me know what you think.

[Minanora]

I'm sad for your loss. It's frustrating as all get out to have a rando death. I had a beautiful guppy, dumbo ear red mosaic, who was doing so great, then just all of a sudden... BOOM Pinecone... 20 hours later he left me. Then, cory swimming like normal, eating, playing... then... BOOM spiraled downward from the top and was dead... I watched it happen... I was beside myself for a moment.

[Beardedbillygoat1975]

I wish this didn’t happen but yes chaos reigns in nature and in our tanks. Sorry for your loss. Knowing this has happen to all of us is a small consolation. 
I had a bumblebee Mbuna cichlid who was just another fish in the tribe that in 14 hours killed 18 tank mates. 
I’ve had jumpers my old cat ate, I’ve had whole orders of fish show up dead with warm heat packs or that were poorly packed and cooked the fish. 

[StevesFishTanks]

I killed a fish today in one of the strangest ways. It was while feeding baby brine to my fish room. One of my mature male caudopunctatus jumped out of a small opening in the lid, just big enough for the turkey baster. It landed directly under my heel right as it was coming down almost like he was aiming for it. It was over before I could fully process what had just happened. I then spent the next hour moving the remaining breeders and "resetting" that tank. I figure it  must of had some bad vibes.

[Flumpweesel]

I can only keep one Krib alive.  Bought two females one didn't last they night. Did some reading learned it wasn't the best idea. Bought a very young male for the remaining female after about a month she vanished. He lived quite happily until I spotted a lone female in a lfs thought she might cheer him up.  She did for a while but then after a couple of breeding attempts he was floating.

I know it's aggression with kribs but it's still disappointing.

I've started writing down the dates I get fish so I have at least an idea if it's old age getting to them. 

[StanF]

A few years back I had two goldfish when I went away for week long vacation.  I only had one left when I returned.  Nothing remained of the poor fish that died but a few scales and fins at the bottom of the tank.  No way to know what happened, just a random death.

It happens, fish can have internal issues or genetic issues that are not visible until it too late.

StanF

[BETTA999]

i had my little betta friend pass away because of a super fast popeye he litterally from one day to another had a gigantic swollen eye and in 3 days he died

[Levi_Aquatics]

I found a cherry shrimp on my bedroom floor last night. It must have jumped out of my aquarium through an opening in the lid. 

[BuzzDaddy21]

When I started back into the hobby a while back, I got 3 different types of fancy guppies (1male/2females) the males were just beautiful, I naturally put in different tanks, over the course of 2 weeks all 3 males died within like 3 days of each other, month or so later 1 of the females died after giving birth to 20 or so babies, then a few days later the other female dies, and I see 1 baby. guppy. I still have 4 of the original females and my daughter got me a young fancy male guppy, he`s strutting his stuff, and doing great.

All of the loses were probably my fault because of water quality, I feel bad when any type of life passes away, my daughter says my fish, shrimp and snails are my kids😄 I told her then they need to start paying rent and help with the chores🙃 

[mountaintoppufferkeeper]

I once had a diy co2 set up go full open overnight and woke up to 18 bucktooth tetra deaths. Worst fishroom morning ever.

 

****Not death but one that fakes it occasionally **** 

This is 3 minutes later. He just ate his body weight in worms this morning .

This is 3 mins earlier he held this for 15 minutes. He also has always enjoyed floating belly up since I got him in 2018. Weird guy.

[Tanked]

I haven't had any accidental/odd deaths, but I may have come close.  I don't know if is possible for a fish to choke to death, so after one of the Tinfoil Barbs tried to eat a pea that was to big to swallow or spit out, I spent nearly an hour trying to figure out how to do a Peaectomy.  Fortunately the fish figured it out so I didn't have to.

[H.K.Luterman]

I had a young female bichir just drop dead for no apparent reason. Fine the night before and then dead the next morning.

The one female I had before her hardly ever grew any (she was tiny compared to the male, I bought both at the same time from the same source). She ate EVERYTHING, even dug up root tabs, and always acted like she was starving. Her stomach was always bloated up too, which I tried everything to try to fix. She eventually passed away. 

I gave up trying to give my male a girlfriend. He has a boyfriend instead (who he tries to flirt with).

[KaitieG]

I had a swordtail that jumped up onto the lid through a crack.  I found it cooked under the lights when I went to do a water change.  It was full-color, perfectly preserved...and crispy.  😕

[BETTA999]

another and i think is one of the most dramatic fish deaths is the koi that i had 2 yrs ago passed away on a rainy day on a dramatic afternoon it literally looked like those movies where some on dies on a rainy day

Edited January 22, 2022 by bettta999

[Guppysnail]

I had a guppy middle aged born in my tank that was swimming across the tank nd mid swim floated to the floor deceased. Heart attack maybe? Do fish have those 🤷‍♀️  Perfectly healthy looking nothing unusual. I would not have believed it if I had not see it happen. 

[Colu]

On 1/23/2022 at 12:25 AM, Guppysnail said:

I had a guppy middle aged born in my tank that was swimming across the tank nd mid swim floated to the floor deceased. Heart attack maybe? Do fish have those 🤷‍♀️  Perfectly healthy looking nothing unusual. I would not have believed it if I had not see it happen. 

Fish can have heart attacks it's usually bought on by a sudden shock 

[Lifeisgood]

One event to add—I had a lovely personable Half-Banded eel who would eat from my fingers.  She would burrow occasionally but always come out for food. The top was secure with no gaps to escape. She was maybe a year old and seven to eight inches long.  Then she burrowed and I never found any trace of her again.  I even dismantled the tank and sifted through the sand. Never saw a snail pile.  Nothing.  Just gone.