Hi, I am so sad. I lost my beautiful Moon, 14" (I measured her today) female Tiger Oscar. She was getting ready to lay eggs (or at least attempting one more time) as she was barely eating yesterday -normal behaviour- and their egg-laying slate rock was cleaned, again.

Here is a pic I quickly choose, taken in November 2008. The one in front is Moon, the female.


I watched over them last night. She seemed OK. Something went terribly wrong. I had to work today, when I came home, had my lunch and trying to get a short nap, I heard splashing sounds -not unusual to hear one, but I notice it was kind of on-going splashing... I found Moon motionless, still alive, bruised up by her partner, Luna, the male. That was around 3:30PM Eastern Time.

I thought about putting her to sleep but decided to call the veterinarian. I brought her to him, he placed a small submersible pump, I help attaching a soft airline hose to the pump outlet, he graduated the flow and stuck it in her mouth. She was breathing with difficulty but alive.

He inspected her gills and found out that she had no visible signs of parasites or bacterial infections. He also told me that he could tell she was receiving optimal care (just by examining her gills), no signs of anemia, no visible traumatic injury, no hole in the head. Despite all this, he told me to get ready for the worst. I told him he had my authorization to perform whatever procedure he considered useful to save her life.

She passed away around 7:30PM. He is finishing the autopsy as I write these sad lines. Her stomach was empty, she was full of mature eggs, some of which were decomposing. Her liver, although a bit pale, had no spots or visible lesions. No tumors were found in her organs. Something went wrong with her reproductive system.

She was quite young, likely 1 year and a couple of months old. I won't forget her, I won't hide it, I have tears in my eyes as I write to you.

Luna is all confused in the tank. I need to do a preventive huge water change (vet recommendations, just in case).

Pepe
Santo Domingo

I am very sorry for you loss

I know the words are coming from someone you don't know but I am crying for her too. My deepest sympathy.

im very sorry to hear about moon.
although it doesnt ease the loss, at least you know that the you did everyting within your powers to keep her healthy and happy while she was with you.

sorry for the loss.... but that is life...
we all have our time.... even we, human, no
matter what healthcare we do have, still have
our own time.... the good thing is.... you did
your best while she was staying with you and luna.

kindly update us whatever the vet had found out....
i have an spawning pair too..... i just want to be
aware of whatever posiible things might happen......

Man that stinks!
The way she passed away happened to me but not in a fish I breed snakes and the same thing happened to my sand boa she never had the babies and they started rotting in here and that was what caused her to die.
Sorry for your loss.

I am sooo sorry for your loss!

Sorry to hear about your loss, its a sad thing losing something your care about so much, but like PAUL said, these things happen, its nature.
had the same thing happen to me when i used to breed bearded dragons a few years back, my female which had laid 7 sets of eggs before become pregnant again, but this time she had problems similar to moon and she couldn't get them out, she died after a few weeks.

I am sorry for your loss:(

Here is the last pic, at that moment she was somewhat unconsciouss with no eye pupil reaction to light but still breathing with the help of that small submersible water pump and flexible air-line tubing going into her mouth.



Luna ate his food today, has stayed around their slate rock most of the day.

Pepe
Santo Domingo

grief, has no boundaries. Love is pure.

Thank you all. I usually handle loosing fish differently.

Two losses have hit me really hard since my return to fishkeeping in May 2008. Edda, my female betta who died unexpectedly in October 2008. In her memory I went from keeping one Betta only (her) to five males (4 tanks) and 17 females in a 30gal sorority-community tank.

I still miss her, so I figure the same is happening with Moon. One of those fish that I've developed a strong attachment to.

My daughter Camila noticed my blues and has been comforting me. I told Camila that Edda and Moon were swimming together in Heaven. After some thought she asked me: Do you want Luna to die so they swim together again?. I looked at her and just hugged her. As we were there, she pulled apart from me and said: I know! I know! tomorrow you go to the store and purchase a female Oscar like, like, like... look at Eddy! as she pointed that male Betta I rescued shortly after Edda died...

And there's more... later in the evening, Camila gave her mom a drawing for me as I was taking a nap. It's a mom jellyfish with a daughter -somehow she's been drawing jellyfish recently, she says they are female, go figure how she sex them! with two fish underneath (first time she draw a fish that I am aware of) and below that she draw a family of three (mom, dad, daughter). I am sharing a pic of it so you see what she did:



Pepe
Santo Domingo
PS: this same message I posted at Fishlore.com, a forum I am also active as member.