Piastra died last night :(

[gatotsu77]

:cry: I had a feeling it was coming, but was sad to discover that my pigeon blood discus, Piastra, was dead this morning when I woke up. For the last week he had become increasingly listless... always either just barely hovering above the sand, or propped up on a plant. As the week progressed, he seemed like he was unable to swim while level... his head was tilted slightly upwards. His gill covers had appeared to be slightly more transparent, making the red of his gills really stand out. His respirations appeared to be much more shallow and slow. He had a couple little nibbles in his anal fin, as he was constantly trying to just sit in the front corner of turq and sapphire's territory... but that aside, there were no obvious wounds on his body. There were no visual signs aside from his behavior and strange poise which would have lead me to believe something was wrong. He had become even less aggressive about going for food.. he was already pretty picky and easily chased off by the others before this past week. I'll miss the poor little guy. RIP little buddy.

This was taken last night, shows how he would "hang" in the water.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/animefan73/piastrasitting.jpg

Just in case I missed anything, here's a picture of his side from this morning. I didn't see anything else wrong with him, but perhaps one of you will.
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/animefan73/piastradeceased.jpg

Full tank as of last night. Piastra sat there for a good half hour. (I just noticed the reflection of the tv... should have turned that off too. >_<)
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c70/animefan73/fulltank-1.jpg

[Easydoesit]

:( sorry. how old was he?

[gatotsu77]

I'd only had him 4.5 months. :( He (assuming Piastra was a he... never genuinely found out) was the fish which got me into keeping discus. Especially since having removed my harlequins and cardinal tetras (they kept eating the eggs turq and sapphire were producing) my tank just feels so bare. :( I'm looking forward to seeing my other 5 grow, and I'm considering getting a few more corys to hopefully make them happier too. (I'm debating between 2 or 3 more of each of the 2 species... haven't decided just yet)

[jpappy789]

sorry to hear about this, he looked like a very nice discus :(

[gatotsu77]

I'm sad he's gone... he was always the odd-man-out. His mouth was kinda mis-shapen, he was always rather skinny, and he was always a picky eater. Pain in the butt though he may have been, I miss him.