Dead Fish And What We Do With Them

[jpeterson]

The other day as I was looking for a mysterious missing cory I was thinking. Why do we take the fish that die out of the tank anyway? If it was in the wild they would be left in the river to rot into the substrate. Doesn't it help a well planted tank? Wouldn't it be helping the tank with nutrients and all.

Just a thought! Let's hear your opinions and thoughts.

 

[Wills]

No sorry thats just not right. A rotting fish corpse would just produce an ammonia spike that your fish can not handle and then just poison the other fish see the problem?

 

[moochy13]

a river is a lot bigger than your fish tank.

 

[mattlee]

it would cause a spike. dont forget that in the wild the river will be constantly flowing where as in your tank the water flows but is replaced with the same water. look at it this way... a flowing river is constantly doing water changes flushing any ammonia etc etc away and in your tank it has no where to go causing a spike due to increased ammonia levels.
it also looks horrible to have dead things in a tank and if it died because of infection etc it will spread to other fish.

 

[jpeterson]

No sorry thats just not right. A rotting fish corpse would just produce an ammonia spike that your fish can not handle and then just poison the other fish see the problem?

So it does more harm then it's worth? Obviously our tanks are not the size of the rivers and new water comes down the rivers all the time so the ammonia wouldn't spike it.

 

[Wills]

Yeah if you have fish that hide a lot always try and do a headcount at least every 3 days or so - I know its quite tough now and again with some species but if they do die make sure you manage to get them out.

If one dies though there is often a chance that your other fish will eat it or it could decompose before you think its dead - fish rot fast which is how nature handles it also if a fish dies in the wild there are a lot of scavengers that will eat the dead fish very quickly like crabs, crayfish, large shrimp, various catfish and if they float birds or small mamals can catch them out the water. Or they just get swept down stream rather than stay in one spot like in tanks.

Wills

 

[jpeterson]

I will buy some shrimps then haha, Just joking. I don't tent to leave fish to rot in my tank but I just couldn't find it so I assume it has rotted away. I have done a 20% water change since it died though. Just the thought crossed my mind when I was looking for it. Thanks for the input everyone!