Can fish eat too much and just... die?

[JohnoL]

Hi Guys,

I've had my small 4.5cm PBT in my 4x2x2 DT for about 2.5 months (after 3 weeks copper treatment).
Has always been eating well and was fattening up.
No displays of aggression with other tankmates (Emporer, Queen, Blue Tang, Purple Tang, Yellow Tang, Royal Gramma, Firefish, Clown - they are all pretty small. This is not a fish/tank size discussion etc - no comments required) except his own reflection.
Always swimming around, picking at rock, nice colouration and visibly stress free.

So with new years coming, i thought i'd feed the tank really well. Different types of pellets, Frozen, Nori - this was Friday afternoon. Everyone was pretty fat.
Saturday afternoon, did another big feed, the PBT still ate, however, but wasn't as excited as usual - his belly was still fat.

So... it's Sun NY day morning and my PBT is dead - why?

30/12/11 - fed (over-fed?) fish
31/12/11 - fed fish again - PBT very fat and not eating much
01/01/12 - PBT dead.

Did he eat too much and just... die?
Can this happen?

 

[BigAl07]

I've never seen this first hand but have heard of fish over-eating after a long period w/o food.

 

[Sasquatch]

the "fat" may have been a tumor?

 

[JohnoL]

the "fat" may have been a tumor?

Hi Sasquatch,

No, not a tumor. Only appeared after the big feeding.

 

[BigAl07]

It might have suffered from some type of blockage. The only way to know for sure would have been to surgically inspect after the fact.

 

[Krish]

Hmm...I've personally never seen a fish over eat till it died. I have had Oscar's that will eat all day, but at a certain point, even they know when to give up. Hopefully Lee will chime in soon with his experience with the subject. I'm thinking it may be from something else, but you never know.

 

[kpiotrowski]

Just got a pbt in today so I will be following along. thinking outside the box I wonder if he was harrassed to death by another fish? woudn't be the first time fish decided to have a territorial dispute overnight. and thats not a dig at your choice to stock your tank the way you have! I personaly have 12 clowns I plan to keep in a species only tank and see how they get along in the future.

 

[leebca]

Actually an eating fish can die. The death is from the wrong kinds of foods (foods it can't properly digest) or foods that do not contain the right nutrition. Nature drives a fish being poorly fed to eat and eat more to compensate for the poor diet. I've seen this happen, but not too often. It is the point of the sticky post about 'My fish eats like a pig' being a BAD sign.

A fish's 'fat' is stored along the dorsal side (top part) of the fish. So if by 'fat' you mean the lower part or 'stomach' area, this is not a sign of being fat -- for any of the fish on your list. This energy reserve takes time to replenish, especially on Tangs and then, it doesn't wax and wane but should always remain there. The dorsal side of the fish would be 'thick.'

Pellets and flake foods contain wheat and land products. These are not digestible by marine fish and are not the right kind of foods to feed. Rarely a fish will die from intestinal blockages or problems with such foods. All the wheat does is pollute the tank and feed more bacteria which compete for the oxygen in the water, with the other marine life forms you'd rather keep. But such products 'fool' the hobbyist. The wheat is counted as part of the protein analysed, but this protein doesn't ever become available or utilized by the fish.

All the above are possibilities, but the most likely is that your fish just finally succumbed to its tolerance to captive life. Fish react differently to captivity and some can't handle it and die fast; others die slowly; most adapt well and live longer than they would in the wild. This is, of course, assuming all other angles (water quality, space stressor, tank mate stressors, etc.) have been ruled out.

 

[JohnoL]

Thanks for your insights and knowledge on this Lee.