# Oranda death



## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

One of my Oranda's just died this morning. Over the past 5 months, i lost 2 orandas. I've been testing the water everyday since and water quality has been pretty good. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, <10ppm nitrate. Its a heavily planted tank with rotala, anubias, java ferns, java moss and vals. There are also cherry shrimps in the tank. The tank is a 50 gallon tank. There are 2 Goldfish left in the aquarium. 

The strange thing about their deaths is that it's always very sudden. There are no symptoms leading up to it. One thing i did notice when removing them from the tank is that their body was significantly heavier than normal and their mouth was frozen in an open position stretched outward, looking like the meme lol guy. 

What may have caused this?


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## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

Additional information is that the Orandas were about 5 years old and 4.5 inches


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## characinfan (Dec 24, 2008)

That is weird; sorry for your loss. Do you think the orandas might be swallowing substrate and unable to spit it out?


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## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

it's possible, but they've been living in that tank for 5 years and never had problems. the substrate is about 3mm large, so they should have been able spit it out.


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## RevoBuda (Sep 3, 2011)

It's my opinion that sometimes, if all possible sources of stress, or other possible sources of cause of death are not present that the fish may have had a systemic issue. I have lost a couple fish over the last 2 months, (smaller feather fins) the only thing I can attribute it to is either being in a mortal battle, or a systemic issue. 

I think many of us are so particular about how we keep our tanks that sometimes we keep looking for a reason, where we haven't done anything wrong to make them die. 

I know it's probably not what you want to hear, but sometimes shit happens. Especially if you have a long standing inhabitant without any issues, or changes in the last while. 

Sorry to hear, and good luck moving forward.


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## Fishfur (Mar 4, 2012)

*Oto has red belly, is this infection ?*

Sorry, this is an error. This was meant to be a new thread.. please ignore this reply


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## zfarsh (Apr 7, 2011)

Some say the life span of a "Fancy" Goldfish is 5 - 10 years, depending on the specific kind. For an Oranda, some site have it as exactly 5 - 10 years. I have hurd of cases where their fancy have gone to 13 - 14 years, and maybe rarer cases where much longer, but standard is 5 - 10 years. So maybe you didnt do anything wrong on the first one.


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## zfarsh (Apr 7, 2011)

I am assuming you have a close look at your fish every day and are able to see if they bottom sit or sifting too much air on top, and no new plants / fish added recently, and if so, that they have all been quarantined properly before introduction on the new tanks. I am also assuming nothing too stressfull has hapened, like losing one of their friends, and that they seem generally happy. Sometimes, you cant do anythign about it. Generally, normal goldish live longer... but i have made the same choice as you and have gone with only fancy goldfish, in heavily planted tanks with chery shrimps as well . If you do get new goldfish, remember to quarantine


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## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

Yeah, I have been doing all of that, so i suppose it might have been their time. Though 5-10 years still makes me wonder why they ended up in 5 year mark instead of the 10. Thanks for all your helps everyone!


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## Stevpaw (Jan 19, 2010)

Could be a digestive issue. Any changes in diet lately?


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## AquaticPulse (Jun 19, 2011)

Still been feeding them hikari lionhead pellets. stopped the duckweed feeding for 4 months now


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## splur (May 11, 2011)

It's scary because one of my orandas also sits on the bottom, but shows no sign of disease or anything. But my black moore who died of dropsy and a bent tail also sat on the bottom before dying suddenly. I think it's stress, but it could be anything.

(sorry for the slight hijack)


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