glass catfish dead

[orthikon]

First of all when I got my tank (used, friend gave it to me) I noticed that this fish (there's two of them) was staying on the gravel (at that time I thought it was sick/dying). A couple of days later it was behaving normally. Although I noticed that he was swimming along the surface most of the time. Its barbels was about 1/8" instead of 1.5" (compared to the other glass catfish that I had) and they weren't pointing forward (a bit backward and diagonal). He was being chased by a blackskirt tetra that I had.

Yesterday night I added a lava rock (boiled it before putting it in), silk plants and two more blackskirt tetras (to keep my tetra company and hopefully to recude aggression). I obsevred them for about 4 hours or so and everything was fine (he was still swimming near the surface avoiding being chased I presume)

This morning the glass catfish was swimming in an odd fashion and a couple of minutes later it died. I measured water parameters this morning and everything was fine. All the other fish are exhibitng normal behavior

What could be the cause of this?

Perhaps the fish was already dying when I got it and the tetra chasing him just put more stress.

Opinions please.

Thanks

 

[OrionGirl]

Well, glass cats can be touchy fish. They tend to do best in a large group, and a pair will likely be more stressed, and prone to hiding. Stressed fish are going to get sick quicker, and without knowing their conditions prior to coming into your tan, it's hard to say what the problem is that killed the fish.

Bottom line--if the parameters check out, and the other fish are healthy, I'd just monitor the tank and keep my fingers crossed. Any other action is likely just going to cause more problems.