Wheren we commiserate with you about stuff happening for "no apparent reason.."

[Tannin Aquatics]

Yesterday, I was talking to one of my friends about what was going on in his cool fish room, and he was telling me that he was just looking to see what fishes were “breaking out”, which ones could be doing better, and which ones were in trouble. A cool, useful practice that many of us engage in with our tanks. He and I reflected on the fact that, on any given day in a lot of fish rooms, you’ll some find fishes or tanks that were “kicking but, some that could look better, and some that just “bought the farm” for no apparent reason.

“No apparent reason…”

Familiar words, actually. I hear them often when talking to fellow hobbyists who, calling us for advice, assistance, or just encouragement, will say things like, “…and they were looking great the other day, and today- they’re just failing to thrive for no apparent reason.” (click to read more)

 

[Becca]

I have this issue with Vaillant's Chocolate Gourami (Sphaerichthys vaillanti). I've had several different batches and the same thing happens with each, despite supposedly being more flexible regarding water parameters than other types of chocolate gourami that I've kept successfully over the years. Whether using rain water, tap, RO, testing TDS, hardness, etc., whatever, they always seem like they're doing well and then one will die, inexplicably... a week or two later, another, then another, and another... often the deaths will slow, but they don't stop until the fish are all gone. I've begun to suspect it's a result of something going on in their currently threatened habitat (mercury poisoning, perhaps?), but whether this is or is not the case, I simply don't have the resources to figure out what's going wrong with these fish. No matter how robust they look, how well they eat, or how much courtship behavior I'm seeing, they all end up dead. It's a mystery to me. At this point, I've just sworn off keeping them.

 

[Tannin Aquatics]

I have this issue with Vaillant's Chocolate Gourami (Sphaerichthys vaillanti). I've had several different batches and the same thing happens with each, despite supposedly being more flexible regarding water parameters than other types of chocolate gourami that I've kept successfully over the years. Whether using rain water, tap, RO, testing TDS, hardness, etc., whatever, they always seem like they're doing well and then one will die, inexplicably... a week or two later, another, then another, and another... often the deaths will slow, but they don't stop until the fish are all gone. I've begun to suspect it's a result of something going on in their currently threatened habitat (mercury poisoning, perhaps?), but whether this is or is not the case, I simply don't have the resources to figure out what's going wrong with these fish. No matter how robust they look, how well they eat, or how much courtship behavior I'm seeing, they all end up dead. It's a mystery to me. At this point, I've just sworn off keeping them.

I can totally relate to that issue...It just seems that some issues are confounding, no matter how carefully we look at them...And that's both frustrating AND motivating, depending upon how we look at it. I've had that with various Apisto species over the years and just scratch my head, swear 'em off for a while...then come back to them a few months/years later, repeating the process, lol...What's that quote about insanity that is attributed to Einstein?"