One of my fish has died. He was alive this morning.

[itati]

He was bent in half. Any ideas what was wrong and what to do about our 4 remaining fish? They are all goldfish, 2 are massive and about 4 years old, the others are about 2 and 3 years old.

when one of our goldfish died suddenly they others followed quite quickly.

Never did find out what was wrong, but maybe thoroughly clean the tank and start with new water (treated)just incase its contagious illness.

Sorry to hear that. We had trouble with our tropicals too, They were found with their eyes missing! We blamed it on An Angel fish and had to get rid of him, since then, no murders.

We have lost two in the last year but not close together. the others all seem fine but they were huddled in the corner together.

They were only cleaned out about 10 days ago.

That's very strange. Have you got some info on goldfish. I have various leaflets on sick fish. will have a look and see if it says anything.

So it was just bent in half, no sign of disease on the scales or anything?

Hubby said he looked normal apart from being bent in half.

We have lost a tropical fish-it is not in the tank! We think it died and the largest fish ate it-does this happen? It is the only explanation as it has simply disappeared without trace!

yup abbey, 2 of our neon tetras disappeared overnight once, and no trace so we have to presume they were eaten. Horrible isnt it.

It is horrible! I hope that it died before it was eaten. I didn't realise they did that-I moved everything in the tank to look for it!

actually fish decompose alarmingly quickly - especially tetras.

We had a bacteria bloom in our tank just over a year ago (dh is serious fish geek) and we lost all but one of our neons. Some of them we only found bits of .

apparently when they die they get sucked up towards the filter and disintegrate. Also if you have shrimp in the tank they will pick off the flesh and you might find only a skeleton.

obviously some fish do eat other fish but sometimes they just die and if it's days before you notice the body has disintegrated. Important to check amonia/nitrate level if that happens though.

We also had a guppy who was bent in half but wasn't dead the thinking was that he may have been fighting as if you get too many males they fight.

itati - was it a young fish? Some fish are born with defects.

I know they decompose quickly but he was alive and healthy one day and gone the next! I have had other fish die but they have always floated on the top.

Sorry Itati, that's a shame. I don't know what the bent in half thing means though.

I reckon it would be best to change the water just in case. I think if you google quarantine (for fish obviously!) it will tell you the best way to do it.

The fish was about 2 years old.

We have 2 huge gold fish that are about 4 years old and have outlived several others.

Kids haven't noticed yet, thank fully.

Too late, I'm afraid.

You do know you are not meant to flush dead fish down the loo?

Bury them I guess, or put them in the bin.

Well, they aren't sewage. You aren't meant to flush anythig down the loo other than wee, poo and loo roll.