Dead fish......leave them in the tank?

[Tiggs]

Over the years i have lost various fish yet only about 5% make it to the bin......the tank has heavy planting and the others just die and - i assume- get eaten.

in the last year i have lost a horseface loach, prob 10+ cardinals (heat wave), 2 firemouths (bullied by the other 2), 2 ottos (soon after purchase of 8 ) etc.......................of these only 2 of the cardinals have been fished out.........i think my other fish have a taste for flesh!

 

[redtailblackshark]

yikes, i wouldn't do that, I would keep a very close eye on all your fish, because if the other fish are eating the dead fish, there's a good chance the other fish will get whatever sickness the dead fish had (if any)

 

[Soaup]

yikes, i wouldn't do that, I would keep a very close eye on all your fish, because if the other fish are eating the dead fish, there's a good chance the other fish will get whatever sickness the dead fish had (if any)

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I agree, Your tank may become infected for whatever reason and say they dont eat the fish then you have a decomposing fish in a contained area whatever nasty things come from the decomposing body are now in your tank.. Not only that but im sure you tank will not smell as bad if you take them out.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Even if the fish don't die from desease, ammonia from the rotting bodys will make water quality go very bad very quickly and could introduce fungus into the tank.

 

[Bloo]

I don't exactly think Tiggs is purposely leaving dead, rotting bodies floating in tank

If one has quite a fully stocked tank and some large fish, a smaller fish body can easily be gone by the morning if it died during the night

 

[smithrc]

deads don't get chance to rot in our tank... we noticed our male apisto was missing one day - and the next spotted 8 shrimp cleaning up a skeleton

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I had a platy die the other day and i gave it to my 3 apple snails to eat in a non fish tank and they had cleaned it all up apart from the spine in 2days but once i lost a guppy and i found the body a week later trapped in some plants in a heavily planted area of the tank and the body had hardly been eaten at all, it was only missing its tail fin.
So i suppose it depends alot on what fish you have in your tank and what temp the tank is.

 

[Tiggs]

glad others have this happen!

clearly when i see a deady i take it out! but....for example...with my firemouths - i knew one was hassling the others. about a week ago i realised i hadnt see all 4 out for a while - noticed one dead in the plants (flsuhed him)...two still alvive - other one missing!

tank is big so i suppose as long as the critters and fish consume the body within a few days the amonia will never get to high levels.

test every week and never had any ammonia readings other than 0

 

[smithrc]

glad others have this happen!

clearly when i see a deady i take it out! but....for example...with my firemouths - i knew one was hassling the others. about a week ago i realised i hadnt see all 4 out for a while - noticed one dead in the plants (flsuhed him)...two still alvive - other one missing!

tank is big so i suppose as long as the critters and fish consume the body within a few days the amonia will never get to high levels.

test every week and never had any ammonia readings other than 0

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Same tank as yours - i have to wait for them to float anyway - i cant get to the back corner due to the bog wood in there

 

[jollysue]

As I've mentioned before elsewhere, Ive lost three otos over time. I found one body. I"ve lost 3 little green neons. I found one. The otos could have bought it under a log someplace. The green neons, well, any larger tetra could make a one bite meal of a juvie green neon.

 

[oneponygirl]

The last time I lost a fish I only found it's head. I think it was left there as some sort of message. hmmm

 

[FishEnthusiast]

I have lost 4 oto's and only found 2 bodies. I lost 3 glolites, and never found a body. I am pretty sure the angel ate them alive as they were healthy fish. I lost an angel, and found her. I have lost some female bettas, but I rarely find a body. I do head count in the morning and one is gone. There isn't much we can do if the fish dies overnight and the body is gone by morning. If I see a dead fish, I take it out and throw it in the trash. Hopefully I won't have to do that any time soon.

 

[Synirr]

I don't even know if I still have all my otos or my bumblebee catfish, if that tells you anything *lol* I never see the little guys.
I've found skeletons of fish that were alive in my tank the previous morning before, so I know what that's like... I don't think that scenario is likely to happen in any of my current tanks, though

 

[jollysue]

I have often thought all my otos were deceased, only to see a glimpse of one briefly at a later time. Same thing with my cories--my first ones were shy guys. I thought for sure one of my cories was gone. But I was able to count everyone when I moved them into the big tank (100 usg.) Now in the big tank I see both my cories and my otos come out--cories more often--in a play group/shoal.

Hey what's the difference between a shoal and a school? the Atlantic Ocean or more? :stupid:

God bless all the little fishies