fish choked to death?

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rtgreeno

Aquarium Advice Apprentice
Joined
Sep 19, 2011
Messages
16
Sunday morning i was admiring my fish as always.. i gave them the normal amount of frozen food (thawed)... 5 mins or less later i notice my dwarf flame is acting weird.. kept comin to the surface for oxygen... i checked that all the circulation systems were working and they were fine... 10 mins after that the angel starts laying on the sand breathing very heavily... i was able to reach in and scoop up the fish which really sent up a big red flag because if i ever had to reach in before it was gone fast as lightning... quaranteed it in a small tank w only an airstone and no improvement so i took it to my lfs and they kept it but it did not survive the night :( water conditions are all normal and the other fish are fine so i wonder is it possible for a fish to choke to death? or is it a freak coincidence that it started right after feeding?
 
oh also i did a water change and installed a new canister filtration system the night before... however if it had anything to do w it i expect the other fish would have been affected as well right?
 
When you installed your new canister, did you keep any of the already seeded filter media from the previous filter?

What were your readings? Please give numbers because "normal" doesn't really tell us much.

Sorry for your loss.
 
i went from an ancint tetra whisper(?) over the top pump to the canister. so its an all new pump and filters and all... i rinsed and dried every thing, sprayed my diluted vineagar cleaner on the pump rinsed it dried it then installed it... i suppose i should have said the water conditions seem normal (normal being as always) but i guess i cant say that because i dnt test my own water yet i have the lfs check it.. i only monitor my salinity... when i took the fish to the lfs i had them test the water and nothing showed out of balance... the owner of the lfs said to watch the other fish and re test the water at the end of the week.. but so far the others all seem to be completely healthy and as active as always... thank you for your sympathy my daughter and i were very upset about the loss of our favorite fish but we plan to replenish our stock with another flame once we confirm the tank is not the cause of its death.
 
You should really get your own test kit. More often than not, the lfs doesn't do it correctly or can give you faulty readings. In cases of emergencies like this, it's great to be able to have your readings done in a few minutes time.

It sounds like you're going into a mini-cycle. If you removed the filter entirely, and started over with a brand new one, you've lost your cycle.
 
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