jmack

I just have a simple questions that has probably been asked before.


I have bought all my fish in pairs, as of right now I have 8 pairs.
Why is it if one of my fish dies's the other one always dies with it ?

quick story

This has happened to me three time in the last three years. Matter of fact they are the only fish that have died on me. That last occurence happened today. The weird thing about it is that the one looked dead and the other one looked half paralyzed, but still swimming. Within about ten min, the other one went down. All of a sudden the dead decided to get up and within min the half paralyzed one followed. Eventually they both died. The time before this one of my little sharks died and the other one went crazy and got stuck in one of my fixtures. I always noticed that they stick together in groups, do the some how form of life line between each other. The think that scares me about the ones today is that they were my small guys who were always the ones who would alert the others when it was feeding time.

I'm I crazy or is this the norm!


Thank you in advance

Nick G

Hi Welcome to Fishlore. It's difficult to answer questions without knowing your aquarium info. Could you post your tank size, how long it's been set up, and the type/how many fish are in it?

capekate

Hi Jmack
welcome to fishlore..
Its a interesting thought for sure. I have wondered about it myself. Most often when fish die, and more than one, we can usually attribute it to an illness that can be spread to other fish or water quality issues. These are usually the reasons I can think of.
But I had to wonder myself when I lost my two female Bettas awhile ago. One was sick with huge tumors which was not a disease that the other could catch. They were in a divided ten gal tank together for about a year and a half at least. When one of them died, the other went into a depression and wouldnt eat, was lethargic and would stay off by itself. I really feel that this betta was depressed and missing the lost Betta. She died 30 days later for no apparent reason. Do fish get depressed...? I do not know. Do they have the capacity for such things? I really dont know. I do know that in the animal kingdom, dogs, cats, birds and all kinds of animals react to the loss of another or mate and do get depressed and can die of a broken heart. Can our fish actually get depressed and die off? I guess it can happen, but my logic has to say that it is most likely the result of a problem with the fish as a whole or a water quality issue. But my heart can not say this is so.

midnightwolf

i feel the same way, i feel that animals understand when another is sick or dead, that they know their friend is gone and that they are alone. my mom does not beleave me but i think animals do have feelins and recanition to others.

Red1313

here's a story that you might like. We bought a gaurd lama for our sheep and they said that you should introduce him to the sheep slowly. So after a few days I added one of my orphan lambs to the trailer (we kept him in there b/c we wanted to make sure he didn't run off). After a week or so we let the two of them out into the big group. "Spitz" eventually bonded to the other sheep but he and the lamb were constant companions. When the orphan lamb passed away (orphan lambs don't have great odds) Spitz went off feed for days and just mopped around. I'm convinced that he knew his little guy was gone.
And that's my sad story for the night

jmack

Alright, I was gonna try to keep it short...

Here is my story
I don't want to sound ignorant, but I have two 55 gallon tanks.
That were both set up by my neighbor before I bought with the house.
He originally had them set up for the previous owner.

The tanks were set up in 2001 and I moved in 2007. My neighbor takes care of them and has taught me how to keep the tank clean and care for the fish. I love animals, but don't have alot of time in the day to take care of them properly. Since the fish were here when I bought the house I vowed to make sure they would be taken care of properly, and that when I get my business settled I would learn as much as could about them. . I'm deffiently dedicated to giving them a proper place to live and this is why my neighbor has access to the fish when needed, and yes he qualified. He is a fish fanatic.

On all occasion we have quickly removed the fish and taken step to eradicate any possible diseases. I don't now all of my fish, but I do know that the ones today were tetras. I understand that these are my most common fish. I also know I have discus and bala sharks (which are one of the other pairs that died). There are many more, but the species escapes my mind right now. For the most part I have two everything, I did have 4 bala's though. I also have have a school of of some long looking fish and supposedly they were but in there to keep another species inline. There are few single fish which I was told that the work better that way.


Let's get back to the deaths, since I have owned the tank I have bought 8 pairs of fish.
Out of all the fish that died since I have been here have came out of the newer group. The tetras were bought a year and a half ago and replaced ones that died before I moved in. He said he was worried about the tettras because of some kind of diseases. So I guess that is normal for them to get sick together?

In my opion some of my fish seem like there attached at the fin, and it would supprise me if the felt the loss of there copanion.




I know it would be eaiser if I started with a smaller size, but this was all here when I bought the house and my neighbor will eventully get me up to speed.

I have pitures and will download them for you tommorow.

Thank for all your responses, and please ask away or give me some of your input since Im obviously a newbie to all of this.

jmack

Oh and for a reponse to animals knowing when the other one left for greener pasture.

I Had two bunnies in high school, one of them got ill and eventually lost its eye sight.
Within weeks the blind one would just follow healthy one around. Also the only reason he was able to eat was because he haeard the other bunny eat. The vet said as long is he was able to hear the other bunny do things they normaly needed to do he would stay helthy. It eventually died of old age, soon after the other one never left his cage and eventually died. The vet said bunny are very acceptable of dying from broken hearts.