Dead fish for no apparent reason?

[hoppingtetra30]

I just found one of my Oto's floating...I'm wondering, why would a fish die for no apparent reason?

The tank is cycled and healthy. Great water parameters. Perfect temperature. Lots of plants and healthy fish. No disease. They get fed twice a day. There is lots of algae for the Oto's.

He looked fine this morning...I watch them all a couple times a day and make sure everyone's good. I looked over his body when I pulled him out and there was no signs of disease or fighting or anything.

So what gives?

 

[Brookster123]

Tank parameters?

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[philipraposo198]

Old age? Internal disease with no outward signs? Heart attack?

 

[MissGurnus]

Its possible he could have over eaten and his digestive system failed. Depending on what you have in your tank feeding twice a day is too much. Id cut it back to once a day at most. Under feeding is not a issue almost all fish can go an entire week without food and be just fine


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[hoppingtetra30]

Tank parameters?

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zero ammonia, zero nitrates, 5ppm nitrates, low kh/gh, neutral ph. Nothing out of the ordinary. Over filtered.

Old age? Internal disease with no outward signs? Heart attack?

Definitely not old age, it wasnt even fully grown. Cant comment on the other reasons...

Its possible he could have over eaten and his digestive system failed. Depending on what you have in your tank feeding twice a day is too much. Id cut it back to once a day at most. Under feeding is not a issue almost all fish can go an entire week without food and be just fine


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There's 42 fish in there, I feed flakes, sparingly, in the morning, and I mix up the evening feed...brine shrimp, blood worms, etc...they eat all of it and would take more if I let them.

I've never seen the Oto's eat any of it...just the algae, so I dont think overfeeding could be an issue regardless.



I'm wondering if maybe I bumped him or got him stuck somewhere when I was moving a couple plants around. The Oto's dont seem to pay any attention that Im in there and will just keep doing whatever they're doing, even if I'm touching them.

 

[Nils]

Since oto's are wild caught fish, this could have been a parasite. Fish like puffers, many tetras are wild caught because in most cases they can't be bred in captivity. This is what I would put my money on. Lot's of people have trouble keeping these alive and I honestly wouldn't ever try them. The only way to get rid of parasites is with chemicals, and you should do that if you ever get them again. Hope this helped with the problem.

 

[coralbandit]

Tank size and how long has it been set up?
Your water parameters seem very good.
How long have you had the oto to know it was not full grown?
Did you "treat" them after purchase?
Nils is on about wild stock.
Some can breed these fish but not in numbers to sell them for $2.99 retail!

 

[hoppingtetra30]

Tank size and how long has it been set up?
Your water parameters seem very good.
How long have you had the oto to know it was not full grown?
Did you "treat" them after purchase?
Nils is on about wild stock.
Some can breed these fish but not in numbers to sell them for $2.99 retail!

Its a 75 gallon, been up a couple months now. I think he was one of my newer Oto's so he's only been in there 2 weeks; he was smaller than my others.

Not sure what you mean by treating them?