Why did my fish die when I tried to transfer it from the tank to a bowl?

Question

I bought the 2 small fishes a month ago and I was cleaning the tank, had to change water every week and have done it for 3 times already without any problem. Anyway, I had to catch them with small fishnet so I could transfer them to a bowl. The male one was easy to catch but the female took 2 minutes and when I finally caught it and transferred it to the bowl, its not longer moving and it died with eyes open! Did I kill it accidentally? It was no longer swimming and it looks dead and I was sad, it was the very first time I ever had an aquarium and fishes. I wonder how it died?

thanks but yeah its really dead, i already put it near my plants..

yeah i always add that stuff for the chlorine of tap water.. thanks to u too for answering.

hi.. what does ''live-bearing persuasion'' and ''my female fish near her delivery time'' mean? thanks.

Answer 1

There are a few possibilities. The most likely is that it died from stress. It is best to minimize the amount of stress on your fish and catch them only when necessary and as quick as you can. It is not actually necessary to remove them when you are cleaning because only a portion of the water in the tank needs to be changed (about 30 to 50 percent). Next time just leave the fish in the tank and siphon out half the water and replace it with clean tap water that matches the temperature of the water in tank(if the temperature of the new water is too different your fish could die). Also use dechlorinator when adding the tap water, the chlorine could kill the fish if you forget to do this.
*Make sure you use a dechlorinator that removes both chlorine and chloramines. Simply leaving the water out for a couple days will remove the chlorine only. I know someone earlier advised you to leave the water out to remove chlorine instead of adding dechlorinator but this is a very bad idea and the chloramine may end up killing your fish.

Answer 2

Why are you taking the fish out of the tank to clean it? Are you changing all of the water? There is no need to net the fish to change the water. You shouldn't be changing all the water or enough to need to take the fish out. Assuming your tank has a filter you really only need to do a 25% water change every 2 weeks (once the tank is established you can drop to once a month. Changing all of the water alter the parameters of the aquarium and can severely stress the fish. The stress of the going from one set of parameters (the tank) to another (the bowl) that quickly if you did not use water from your aquarium in the bowl could have killed her. You may also have injured her while trying to net her and not realized it. There is also the possibility that you chasing her around with the net to catch her stressed her enough to kill her. Again there is no need to net the fish to clean the tank. You can get a simple gravel vac from walmart for under $5 to do the water changes and clean the gravel.

Answer 3

The fish got stressed out and died. Next time don't transfer the fish it just adds more stress to them. Keep them in the tank and do 40% water changes while they are still in the tank. It will be easier on the fish so they don't have to be chased around with a net. Also it will help keep some of the good bacteria in the tank.

Answer 4

Reserve some of the old tank water to mix in with your clean water..the fish need the bacteria in their old water. If you fill up a pitcher with water the day before you do a water change the water can flatten and some of the chlorine will go away. This is better than using all those chemicals. Also, you might be doing water changes to often. Don't give up on having fish. You sound like a good pet owner. Good luck.

Answer 5

Sounds like your fish were of the live-bearing persuasion,and if that's so it's quite possible that the female was near her delivery time,and the shock of being netted and transferred killed her.
You must learn how to do a proper water change.
That doesn't involve removing the fish.

Answer 6

Did you add the stuff to the water to remove chlorine? If not the chlorine in tap water can kill them. Drastic temperature change can kill fish also.

Answer 7

r u positive its dead??? if u are, maybe your fish was weakend by trying to swim away from the net for so long and was so stressed and overwealmed it died........idk. i am sorry about your fish, though. BUT i wouldnt remove it from the bowl untill your POSITIVE its dead!