Fish doing "breeding dance" then dead 24 hours lat

[sudz]

Well, apparently "mating" dance is "really sick" dance. the next day, he/she was floating upside down attached to the intake of the filter. I have NO reasoning for this. He was trying to mate. He is the biggest fish in the tank. He did have a scuff in the top of his body. It looks like a miniture boat ran over and hit his top.

He couldn't have been dead for longer than 3 hours... because thats when i saw him last, Enjoying himself. MY theory is he may have choked to death on something. Then the damage occured after. OR he wedged himself somewhere, hurt himself by trying to escape, and just died from stress/injuries. He was stiff as a board when i pulled him out.

It makes me really sad. He was my biggest fish. I had him for well over a year. He very near to fully grown, and i THOUGHT he was exibiting breeding desire. was his "dance" one of stress? He was chasing the gourmi around...

I have attached pictures of the fish, dead in a cup. So for those who aren't ok for looking at dead (but otherwise intact) fish, look away now...
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Ok, here it is.

Please tell me your theories. It bothers me. I picked up a 50 dollar card to Big als for christmas. I'm a bit apprehensive as to adding fish to it now.

 

[Jchillin]

My curiosity got the better of me so I took a look. Other than the obvious signs of others trying to make a quick snack of him, it doesn't appear to have any visible signs. The redness around the gill plate looks normal.

 

[LandGhoti]

Sorry for your loss, sudz.

 

[Zagz]

Sorry for your loss as well. He looks perfectily fine to me as well. One of those unexplained deaths.

 

[sudz]

the next biggest fish in the tank is a blue gourami, and HE is the one who gets picked on by THIS fish. The rainbow is about twice the gourami's size. Im going to pick up a few fish tommorow, assuming i don't return my new Fluval 304. Its noisier than a snoring elephant!

 

[jamesrm]

Get a Rena

Sorry about your loss. If it really was a mating dance and then a sudden death, maybe he went out with a good sensation.

 

[sudz]

LMAO!!!, thanks James
I went to petsmart to get someone to look at it. Apparently, someone took out the ceramic "axle" for the impellor. So it was just floating around in there on its own. Thankfully it was too loud and i turned it off before damage was done to the impellor. Its now quiet. Not QUITE as quiet as my Aquaclears, but it is a bigger motor. I imagine it will quiet up once theres a bit of "sludge" in there I know AC's are sometimes noisy for the first week before they wear in.