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It sounds like a joke, but I wasn't laughing when it happened to one of my new and very expensive Zebras one week after purchase.

I'd kept the two fish in an isolation breeding tank for the first week and when I came to move them to their main tank I noticed the smaller fish wasn't swimming actively and had a small red area (on the white) close to it's tail.

The red mark rapidly progressed and the entire rear (previously white) half of the fish became a blood red and within 6 hours the fish was dead.

Initially I blamed myself, for when I was moving the fish I'd accidentally collapsed a cave and I assumed I'd crushed the fishes tail causing internal bleeding and death.

However, I've just been surfing this site and I've seen a few posts that suggest the red colour is a stress reaction? I replaced the dead fish with another expensive fish from the same shop and batch of youngsters so I'm hoping it was a crush injury rather than anything else.

Sorry for you losing your Zebra, hope your others are all well

My experience is that red showing like that is an indication of internal bleeding. I have managed to kill a couple fry over the past 18 months due to netting injury and there is normally a red area as a result.

My bet is your first thought was correct.

Thanks, new fish and original looking fine so I hope it was the cave collapse. Daft thing to do really, never lost a fish that way before.

Otherwise taken with my first Zebras. Only fish in 20 years that look better than their photos

Barbel, can I ask what shop did you purchase the fish from?, do they have any left?

Also where are you located Barbel?

Hello

I'm rather convinced, that red areas (like the one from Barbie) are caused from bacterial infections!

Best regards
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