should i take it out or should i let nature do its thing?

[mr.clownfish]

ok. so my fire shrimp died (very sad

) and i saw it was dieing (not dead yet) so i left it in the tank. i went out to see a movie with some friends and i came back and saw my chocolate chip starfish is eating him. should i take it out or should i let him eat it? im kinda nervous cause its a small 5 gal. and its past 1 P.M. here. so i dont think i will get any immediate answers so i dont know what im going to do, so ill leave him in there.

 

[afboundguy]

I've always leaved dead items in my tank (unless they died from a known disease) and let my CUC eat them or I place the fish in the anenome. That's what happens in the wild so it's good in my tank. I never really have to worry about the dead items causing a mini-cycle because the CUC usually gets to it before I even know it's passed on.

 

[brenda5826]

how long should u leave it in there if none of the others are eating at it????

 

[renogaw]

the things i've taken out of my tank due to death are a clown that had a swim bladder problem, and my mandarin who was starving to the point it couldn't swim anymore. both of which i froze in a cup and flushed.
anything else, including a fish that jumped that i thought was out of the water short enough to make it so i put back in, gets eaten.
as long as your CUC is big enough (and most everything is eaten by the nassarous snails) and you have enough rock, i'd say leave it in for a few hours. if nothing starts feasting, then throw it out.

 

[brenda5826]

cool not that i have fish yet but good to know this
in my fresh watertank i used to just leave it in as it was 150 gallon tank so never caused a issue with water levels

 

[mr.clownfish]

well i think that a chocolatechip starfish is the ultimate clean up crew. it eats everything. but its been almost 12 hours and its not done eating the shrimp. ill let him in there. ill add some cycle to keep the nitrates under control.