Help with Warmouth - Suddenly sick and died

Last night I feed the fish in my tank as normal 2 5" warmouth and a 4" longear. All ate and appeared healthy. This afternoon I noticed one of the warmouths was just sitting on the bottom - I looked closer and his fins looked damaged and he didn't swim to the top ready to be fed when I approched like he normally would. Within about 2 hours he was dead. The other two fish looked and acted fine. I removed him from he tank and did a 25% water change. The other 2 are now sitting on the bottom - I am hoping that is just because of the water change. I have had the 2 warmouths and the tank for about a year and the longear for about 9 months. None have ever been sick. Any suggestions what I should do? What might have caused this?

Thanks

Don

This is the fish that died just an hour or so before I took him out.

Wow. That sucks.

Has he been acting weird at all? How big is the tank? Have you checked your parameters lately? If so, what are they? What do you feed them?

Wow. That sucks.

Has he been acting weird at all? How big is the tank? Have you checked your parameters lately? If so, what are they? What do you feed them?

He hasn't acted wierd at all until today. I don't have any test strips but will pick some up in town tomarrow. I feed them Hikari food sticks.

The other 2 fish are back up and swimming around and don't appear ill.

They are in a 46 Gal bow fron tank.

Here are the other two - I just took these a few minutes ago. I don't see any of the fin damage I saw on the sick fish - The two warmouths where identical in size. The longear was picking on the warmouth today but it usually doesn't. I think it was just because it was sick and getting to close to the long ears spot (under the log)

Your warmouth seem really dark... I've never seen one quite like yours. They're beautiful. They both look like they are/were males, which may be part of the problem. Warmouth are peaceful except to other males that enter their territory. I'm guessing the living fish was dominant, and the one that got sick couldn't get his own territory, so he was always either in the longear's or the other warmouth's territory and got beaten up. Just my guess.

Your warmouth seem really dark... I've never seen one quite like yours. They're beautiful. They both look like they are/were males, which may be part of the problem. Warmouth are peaceful except to other males that enter their territory. I'm guessing the living fish was dominant, and the one that got sick couldn't get his own territory, so he was always either in the longear's or the other warmouth's territory and got beaten up. Just my guess.

Well I have been watching and the longear is being much more aggressive than he has ever been before - he is smaller than both warmouths were but he is swimming up to the warmouth and hitting it's side with his nose pretty hard. I have a 10 gallon tank that has 2 smaller warmouths in it. I am thinking I may put the longear in there and put the smaller warmouths in the large tank. I had never seen the warmouths fight - the most they would ever do is flash their gills at each other.

Any idea what would make the longear turn so agressive so suddenly?

Well I have been watching and the longear is being much more aggressive than he has ever been before - he is smaller than both warmouths were but he is swimming up to the warmouth and hitting it's side with his nose pretty hard. I have a 10 gallon tank that has 2 smaller warmouths in it. I am thinking I may put the longear in there and put the smaller warmouths in the large tank. I had never seen the warmouths fight - the most they would ever do is flash their gills at each other.

Any idea what would make the longear turn so agressive so suddenly?

He wants to breed. The water change might have triggered it. Was he aggressive before the water change?

Warmouth are generally peaceful. I've seen two males go at it pretty bad though, so I think it also depends on how tolerant the individual fish is. I would move the longear and put the other warmouth in with the larger one. How big are the smaller ones?

He wants to breed. The water change might have triggered it. Was he aggressive before the water change?

Warmouth are generally peaceful. I've seen two males go at it pretty bad though, so I think it also depends on how tolerant the individual fish is. I would move the longear and put the other warmouth in with the larger one. How big are the smaller ones?

He has always been more agressive than the warmouths but only when the other fish wondered close to his spot. Now he is expanding his territory I guess, and going after the Warmouth who generally stays near the top of the tank.

The other warmouths are about 4" - about an inch smaller

I didn't change the water until after the other fish was allready sick - the longear was picking on the sick fish. I didn't see if it was picking on it before it got sick.

Any idea what would make the longear turn so agressive so suddenly?

Judging by the picture I'd say that longear is fired up with breeding hormones and venting his pent up frustration on his tank mates. I'd get that other warmouth out of there quick. Either that or add several other hardy fish to dilute the aggression. That tank seems small for fish of that size so going with extra fish is probably not the best choice.

It's a bowfront, so it makes the warmouth look bigger than it really is, and the tank looks smaller than it really is because of the curve.

It's a bowfront, so it makes the warmouth look bigger than it really is, and the tank looks smaller than it really is because of the curve.

That is true

It's a bowfront, so it makes the warmouth look bigger than it really is, and the tank looks smaller than it really is because of the curve.

Looks like there is only one good shelter and the longear owns it.
If they can't be seperated, at least put two or three other shelters where the warmouth can get out of sight without tresspassing on the longear.
I suspect that longear's gonna end up living solo, one way or another.

I think that's a redbreast not a longear.

I think that's a redbreast not a longear.

It's a longear. Redbreasts don't have the outer margin on the "ear".

I'm not real sure what to say about the sudden sickness, have you fed them anything out of the ordinary lately?

As far as the fish them selves, that is definitely a longear, looks like a south western strain, where is it from? Also it is possible you would be seeing some agression toward the warmouth from the longear but it didn't look like the warmouth was beat up enough for that alone to have caused his demise. I unfortunately am prety poor with determining illnesses. Hopefully one of the other more experienced members will catch this and chime in if they have any ideas.

I'm not real sure what to say about the sudden sickness, have you fed them anything out of the ordinary lately?

As far as the fish them selves, that is definitely a longear, looks like a south western strain, where is it from? Also it is possible you would be seeing some agression toward the warmouth from the longear but it didn't look like the warmouth was beat up enough for that alone to have caused his demise. I unfortunately am prety poor with determining illnesses. Hopefully one of the other more experienced members will catch this and chime in if they have any ideas.

The Long Ear is from the panhandle of texas near lubbock.

I havn't fed them anything except the food sticks. I did feed them some minnows but that was about 2 weeks ago. I got the minnows from the same lake I got the sunfish from last fall.

Don

I don't see anything that you did wrong, but like I said I am no expert on treatment of illnesses. I typically just keep up with preventative measures like frequent water changes, and having some salt in the water and when things seem to go wrong I just do more frequent water changes and increase the salt level to 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons and hope for the best. This often does the trick and helps with a lot of common problems. I like the male longear that is a diffferent looking strain, not quite as colorful as some strains but it is unique and that makes it interesting to me.

I don't see anything that you did wrong, but like I said I am no expert on treatment of illnesses. I typically just keep up with preventative measures like frequent water changes, and having some salt in the water and when things seem to go wrong I just do more frequent water changes and increase the salt level to 2 tablespoons per 5 gallons and hope for the best. This often does the trick and helps with a lot of common problems. I like the male longear that is a diffferent looking strain, not quite as colorful as some strains but it is unique and that makes it interesting to me.

I always add 1 tablespoon of salt per 5 gal. I was thinking about adding more when I saw he was sick but it was only a couple hours from when I noticed him sick until he died.

The longear is the only fish I have that was caught with a hook and line. I was hesitant to keep him because I thought he might be too old to adjust to the aquarim. I decided to try because I thought he looked really cool. He was eating the first day in the tank. I have caught several others that look just like him but havn't kept any. Catch them both on hook and line and in my casting net while trying to catch shad.

I'm not sure there has been a good assesment of the Longears from around the continent but there are considered to be 5 subspecies. I have never seen anything that defines the ranges of these real well and would love to see it if someone had an idea of where the splits were. They are an interesting group.

Sometimes fish die and you never know why.

I've had that happen.