# Can fish die from heart attack?



## Chrisk-K (Oct 12, 2009)

My favorite fish, an adult Julii cory, suddenly died. She was chubby and always very active. I saw her swimming up and down and digging around 10:00 AM today. When I checked the tank around noon, she was dead. How is this possible? No visible symptom, all other fish and shrimps are fine. She never showed any sign of illness. So, can a fish suddenly die from a heart attack or any other conditions?


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## OverStocked (May 26, 2007)

All animals can die from sudden causes. They also tend to mask symptoms rather well too.


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## tadpole2 (Nov 7, 2010)

hello "chrisk-K"

sorry to hear about your cory.
a fish of any kind or size can die instantly from a number of things tho signs or symptoms are usually noticable.

main one being stress of course.

a fish can also choke on things from within the tank, like very small grains of gravel
and even food particals.
very un-common but possible.

it could have even been caused by a stroke.
sounds stupid but again possible, anything that has a blood flow is able to have a stroke,
because a stroke is simply a blockage leading to a lack of oxygenated blood reaching any given area of the brain, causing necrosis of the brain tissue.
which in turn "could" mean certain death for the fish.

as you may already kno, fish have a 2 chamber heart so there hearts are very simple.
any animal even fish, can have a heart attack, though most are not prone to because they do not suffer from high cholesterol/triglyceride levels, and therefore don't have the same degree of problem with coronary artery occlusion as we do.

another cause could be a seizure, not that un-common either.
anything with a nervous system can have a seizure, tho in fish they can be caused by lots of differnt things.
seizure's usually show extremly obviouse signs like swimming in strange ways (in circles) very fast, crashing into the tank sides, bending right over (almost in half) loss of determination to swim...ect ect.

these are all possibilities only!
this fish for all we kno could have been carrying an internal parasite...not all are visable to the eye.
sorry for the loss, hope this helps in some way


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## Chrisk-K (Oct 12, 2009)

I'd like to have Dr G perform an autopsy on this fish.


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## tadpole2 (Nov 7, 2010)

who's Dr G ???

an autopsy on such a small fish wouldnt be worth all the hassle.


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## Chrisk-K (Oct 12, 2009)

I think Dr G could easily find the cause of the death Dr G is perhaps the most famous medical examiner.


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