What to do about a dead fish?

[Mr. Quint]

Now that I have an actual reef tank, with lots of stacked-up live rock, and corals perched all over the place, spreading quietly, a thought occurs:

What am I supposed to do when a fish dies among the rocks and stuff? Moving all of that is going to be a nightmare; and probably bad for the corals, not to mention the fish. Plus, itr will stir up lots of sediment, and pobably some other stuff that I can't even think of right now.

Is that just what you have to do? Is there a more elegant solution? If the fish is little, can I just let the crabs and hermits...um...do what they do?

 

[nxb161]

I know in the past when I had a fish die, it would do so overnight, and by the morning when I saw the hermits were already at it, so I left it, and within hours all gone. Thankfully the only fish my hermit crabs have eaten lately were frozen silverside heads.

 

[Mr. Quint]

It seems like that might effect the water quality negatively. Has that not been your experience? I'm all nervous and twirly about water quality, since I started adding coral to my tank. I suppose it would be nice if this kind of thing could be left more-or-less on auto-pilot.

 

[melosu58]

If I`m able to remove it I will but if not then I just let the CUC do their job. No use tearing things up.

 

[redfisher1139]

Your CUC should be able to get rid of the evidence quickly enough as to not too adversly affect your water quality.

 

[joy13]

I know when a peppermint shrimp died in my tank the bristleworms were on the job in no time. I didn't have any crabs in my tank and only algae eating snails.

 

[Unicorn]

Depends on the size of the fish.
If it's small enough, the CUC ate most of it already, and you can't reach it, then I would leave it where it's at.
But if it's one of those monster fishies that need 200+ gallon tanks, then please take it out.
I guess it's situational and if it's one small fish in 6 months than you should be fine. If its more than that, than you have a problem