Holding Cichlid unexpectedly dies!?

Question

I recently had a female Ps. Saulosi Cichlid that was holding. She held for about 8-9days before un-expectedly dying!! Imediately apon finding her dead I tested the water only to find that it was perfect!! No traces of anything that could have harmed her were detected. So as you can imagine, I still today can't figure out as to why she passed away. Hence the reason as to why I'm here seeking information!

Her fry on the other hand are doing just fine. The day she died, the fry still had their egg yolks attached. They now are almost absorbed so will soon require me to begin feeding them finely crushed flake food.

Has anybody else experienced anything like this with their female cichlids? This was her first time holding & she was still quite small in size. Did her size & age have anything to do with why she died?

Any information would be helpful.

Answer 1

Well I can't say I've really had this happen to me before.  I've had holding females swallow or lose their brood on their first time, but not die.

Just looking at the input here, if I were to guess, I'd guess that she tried to spawn too soon?  That's about the only thing I can think of.  She might have been sick and  you didn't know.  I mean she could have had an internal parasite or disease, and she was already weak, and thus trying to carry a brood to term left her too weakend to live?  I honestly don't know, but that's about all I could think of.

Are you doing regular changes in the adult tank?  Maybe you're nitrate levels were too high which weakens the immune system?  Check on your water chemistry in the adult tank just to rule this out.