# Please help me, I think my beloved severum is dying



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

My severum is breathing very very heavily, and I don't know what's wrong.

Last wednesday during a spawn, her mate wasn't playing nice and it resulted in some injuries on her gill plates and right eye. I put the male severum in time out. That night, I dosed the tank with melafix as a preventative. The next day, my female severum's eye was all cleared up, and the gill injuries didn't look any worse. The injuries all healed up perfectly--no problems at all. She was a happy girl, eating well, and being active as usual.

yesterday, I thought i'd give the male a second chance, so i put him back in the main tank. he didn't seem to be bothering the female at all. In fact, it was the female who was chasing the male around quite a bit. Keep in mind that the female is 7", the male is only 4". He really didn't do much damage the first time.

Last night the female sev was hiding, and that seemed odd. She ate well last night. Today, I noticed that she was breathing very very heavily. I did a 30% water change and added carbon to the filter (remember the melafix last week?). It's 3 hours later and she's breathing more heavily. She's uninterested and unresponsive. She's hiding under a piece of driftwood and hovering just an inch off of the substrate. Her injuries are completely healed, and externally, she seems to be in perfect condition.

I dont' know what happened. The heavy breathing happened so suddenly. None of the other fish have any symptoms.

Tank: 125 gallons
Fish: 2 severums, 13 various eartheaters (all babies, temporary), 18 red-eye tetra
water changes: 30% weekly (did one this morning, and the previous one was 8 days ago)
I've had this tank set up for 2 months (but with old filter media), and I haven't had any ill fish.

Can you please help me? I think my severum is going to die today. I will test ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate right now. pH is usually 6.8 Temperature is 80. Thank you


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Ammonia: 0.3 (I don't understand where this is coming from)
Nitrite: 0
Nitrate: <10 --I always like to keep it below 10.

Severum is doing worse already. Now she's resting on the bottom of the tank, and her body is tilted to one side, almost like she doesn't have the energy to stay upright. I'm doing another 30% water change right now. I don't know what else to do.


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Does anyone have any ideas? I'm afraid she may not make it through the night.

She's my first big fish and I've had her for a year. I'm so sad and I'd be absolutely devastated if she died. She has an amazing personality; she's such a sweet fish. She wouldn't even eat the tiniest of tetras. She jumps for food and I bought this tank just for her. If it weren't for this fish, i wouldnt' have gotten into the hobby. I really don't know what I'd do without this little red fish greeting me every morning!

She's not any better, even after two water changes. All of the other fish are still in perfect condition. I've looked at her really closely and I haven't noticed anything external.

Could it be an internal infection due to the injury on her gill plates?


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

She made it through the night but no improvement.


----------



## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Hi and sorry I didn't see your post until now.

I asume that all the other fish are behaving normally: eating at every feeding and swimming at all levels in the tank? 
What are you using for a declorinator?

It could be that she sustained an internal injury from one of her 'fights' with the male. There's no way of knowing for sure if that's what's going on here or if she's got something like Bloat. My guess is that its an internal injury since the symptoms seemed to come on so suddenly.

Is the male still in the same tank with her? If so then I would separte them. She'd probably be better off in a tank by herself so she doesn't get stressed from the other fish. Keep her water perfect with daily partial water changes using a good quality declorinator. (Make sure you're using a declorinator that removes ammonia and Chloramine otherwise you may be stressing her with every water change).

About all you can do with an injury is keep the stress down and the water quality up and wait. Treating with Jungle Parasite Clear is an option since we're not 100% sure that it's not Bloat but that's a call you'll need to make yourself.

How is she tonight?

Robin


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Unfortunately, she died this afternoon. I am SO devastated. She was the best fish ever. I'm convinced of that. Here's a tribute to Sunny Delight (that's her name)!










































































Finally, here are a few pictures of her post-mortem. I was hoping this might give more insight into what was wrong. Maybe it wasn't the injuries after all? She looks quite bloated. She spawned last week, but I'm unsure if she 'finished'. I removed the male because he was beating her up :-( If this is due to something I did or something that's in the tank, I'd like to take care of it so it doesn't happen to any of my other fish.


----------



## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

I'm so sorry. What an absolutely beautiful fish. Really And your tank looks perfect.

I'm not familiar on how Severums should be kept, pairs or harem style but that's something you should check into if you haven't already.

Unfortunately there's not a lot you can tell from how a fish looks after death unless you culture a tissue sample to determine what sort of bacteria/fungus was involved--if that was even what was suspected, which in this case it wasn't.

Was she at all bloated before she died? Bloat usually takes longer to develop but something that does happen rather frequently is a fish will over-eat to the point of causing an intestinal blockage. In that scenario you would have the fish eating one day and then the next it would have difficulty swimming, it might sit on the bottom gasping and look bloated but it will do its best to continue to eat which of course only makes things worse. (If it were bloat then the fish once the fish actually looks bloated it would have long since lost interest in food)

It sounds like you take excellant care of your fish. I'm sorry I can't give you a definite diagnosis. An internal injury from the male, (don't blame the poor guy he's just doing what he suppose to!) is the most likely answer. I would keep a close eye on the rest of your fish just the same. Make sure everyone is eating and swimming normally.

Again, I'm really sorry. Some fish you just get more attached to, I know. 

Robin


----------



## Isis24 (Dec 10, 2008)

Thanks for the compliments. I really do try my hardest to give my fish the best life possible. Severums are kept in pairs.

She actually was a bit bloated before she died, but it didn't look as bad as it does in the picture. It might have been that way for a little while, but I'm not too sure. She spawned every 10 days, so I figured she was a bit plump because of the eggs. Severums lay a LOT of eggs.

Here's what I observed starting from when I first noticed something was up:

Day 1: Hiding a little bit, not as active as usual. Ate very well.
Day 2: Ate very well in the morning. Noticed heavy breathing in the afternoon, ate nothing in the evening. She didn't even come to greet me when I went to feed the fish. I thought she wouldn't make it through the night.
Day 3: In the morning, she turned very pale. She died around 3 in the afternoon.

None of my current fish have ever missed a feeding. They're little piglets. Could this have been bloat? Could this happen because of her diet? I may not have been feeding her enough vegetables.


----------



## Robin (Sep 18, 2002)

Thanks for the clear breakdown of symptoms. 
Can't be 100% certain but it doesn't sound like bloat. Bloat usually takes a week to play out. Starts with fish spitting out food and then not eating at all. You may notice clear/white stringy feces. The fish will gasp and become lethagic and reclusive. At the end the belly area may become bloated or sunken.

All the symptoms for bloat are there in your description but the speed with which they came about doesn't fit. I'm thinking that it was either some sort of internal injury or possibly an internal bacterial infection. And it could also have been a blockage in the digestive trac.

Unfortunately we're not going to know for certain what killed this fish. I would continue to keep a very close eye on all your fish. Watch for any fish not eating or becoming reclusive. For the next several weeks increase the frequency of your partial water changes. This is just good practice whenever there's an unidentified health problem in your tank. I don't think we should rule anything out--even bloat.

Robin


----------



## steelers fan (Jun 26, 2009)

wow very pretty fish...sorry for your loss...


----------

