Can I Leave a dead fish in the tank for the Clean up Crew?

[EL Diablo]

During a water change I found my Banggai Cardinal dead under my LR.
He’s in the back of the tank under some big pieces of LR. He seemed
To be doing just great. I saw him eating yesterday. I checked my water
Levels and everything is good.

I can see him only if I squeeze a mirror between the wall and the back of the Tank using a flashlight.

I tried getting at him with a skinny net I have but I only ended up
Pushing him further under the rock. It's very hard to get to him.

I can see 2 crabs are already having him as dinner.

My question is since I don’t want to tear up the LR to get to
Him,

Can I leave him their for the crabs to devour?

 

[Brad]

Dead fish rot and release ammonia into your system. You have a mature system that should be able to handle the temporary ammonia shot, but it is never good to expose anything to ammonia if you can avoid it.

I suspect that your clean up crew will take care of the problem before any significant decomposition can occur...so I would leave him there if you think that they will devour it within a day or so.

 

[phases99]

I agree it is your best option, too bad.

 

[EL Diablo]

Man what a pain in the butt.

I decided to take the dead fish out. It gave me a reason to re-aquscape my LR.
I was too worried about an Ammonia spike and the clean up crew looked to be taking their time.

So the dead fish is gone. Leaving me wondering why he died. Strange.

Thanks for the help.