Dead fish question

quads4_lif

Member
I purchased 2 clowns about 2" each well one has done great and the other one was breathing very rapidly. Well the prob I have is I think the one died either sometime last night or today while I was at work. I think I can see the body but it is of course at the bottom and behind all my rock.
I checked my amonia this morning and it was 0 I am going to check it again before bed and again when I get up in the morning.
My question is should I stir up all my rock stress out my entire tank to try and get the dead fish or should I just leave it in there and let the Hermit crabs take care of it???
Thank you
 

volcom69

Member
i would def get the fish out that will get all ur tank all out of wack one way or another get him out quick.
 

pallan

Member
i quess it may depend on the size of the tank. IF your critters are anything like mine i dont think there is much of him left at this point. ive seen them scavengers tear up a good size flame angel in a days time (fish was fine at night come home and check on tank at 4pm after work and angel is dead. and about half gone). I then removed the other half.
I would remove if possible if in a smaller tank, larger tank if you can get it without to much fuss sure remove it. but if your talking major construction project. and if you got alot of crabs and other scavengers than i would leave it. a dead royal gramma didnt phase my levels in a 45 gallon ( i did try to find him just never did see the body) damn scavengers got him to.
look at some of the massive reefs on the photo site and tell me everyone tears down their tank everytime a fish dies behind 200 pounds of live rock. :notsure:
 

quads4_lif

Member
Well, I got him out, and really did not stress anyone out my other clown tried to bite me my chromis's just looked at me like I was retarded and my cleaner shrimp thought I was a jungle gym and my Hcrabs were mad because I took their dinner.
I did not have to move as much rock as I thought I would because he was in a little cave area made by one wide rock once I picked it up I just had to move one other and there he was.
Thanks for the imput guys. I guess there is no good reason to take a chance that it might crash my system.
 

murph

Active Member
If the carcass is easy enough to remove from the tank of course take it out as you have done. As was mentioned a sufficient hermit crew can take care of things and is almost certainly what occurs when fish just "vanish" from tanks never to be seen again.
If there were any one piece of livestock that I wish could talk it would be the cleanup crew. They probably have some stories they could tell you about your tank that would both shock and amaze.
 
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