Heavily Planted Tanks - Fish Dead?

[theotheragentm]

My tank is not too heavily planted. Nor do I have that many fish, so I can keep track of all of them, but how do you know whether your fish are dead or not in heavily planted, large tanks with lots of fish? I've seen pictures of people's tanks and there's no way I'd be able to tell. Do you just let them decompose and hope the plants take care of the waste?

 

[JDogg]

my tank is fairly heavily planted i have yet to not find a dead fish..usually the large pile of snails let me know where a dead fish is

 

[joannde]

ROFL JDogg - yeah, I guess that would do it LOL

This IS an interesting question tho. I sometimes find bones much after I've lost a fish - the snails make sort work of the bodies - and with 20 odd mystery snails I know I won't find a body unless the death happens before my eyes or I look under one of the snail-gang.

 

[newfound77951]

I have a pretty heavily planted tank and the only fish that I've had vanish are very small ones like otos. You can see more than you think, even in a dense tank, you just have to really look hard! Every day or so I find all my fish which sometimes can take a little while with the plecos but I always manage to find them all.

 

[JDogg]

my tank is fairly heavily planted i have yet to not find a dead fish..usually the large pile of snails let me know where a dead fish is

it is so true though..i lost a 1.5" rubberlip pleco about a week ago (no idea why... ) but there must have been 20-30 ramhorn snails on him..all that was left was his back and rubberlips (they hollowed him out like a pumpkin in halloween! )

 

[joannde]

i lost a 1.5" rubberlip pleco about a week ago (no idea why... but there must have been 20-30 ramhorn snails on him..all that was left was his back and rubberlips (they hollowed him out like a pumpkin in halloween! )

I found a panda cory like that - all that was left were his scales and his bones. He was completely hollow ! It was sort of gross but also sort of interesting.

 

[rkilling1]

but how do you know whether your fish are dead or not in heavily planted, large tanks with lots of fish?

You can always buy bigger fish.

Do you just let them decompose and hope the plants take care of the waste?

If you had a couple of these guys in there you wouldn't have that problem. They are my clean up crew. Just sometimes they eat them before they die.

 

[Mosaic]

Sweet pic, rkilling!

Trust me, people with well-planted tanks spend a looong time looking at them. You'd notice sooner than you think.

 

[jamesrm]

rkilling,
Excuse the arrogance, but what kind of specimen is that?

 

[rkilling1]

rkilling,
Excuse the arrogance, but what kind of specimen is that?

That would be a Senegal Bichir.