why do I never find a dead fish...?

[kostasonia]

It´s really amazing but I hardly never find my dead fish.

I had 6 danios and 3 guppys and suddenly I have only 5 danios...Ok...I brought the danios just a week ago from my LFS and I understand that some may not be in the best conditions, or they get dtressed in the new environment or...or...and finally they die.

The question is what happens with the bodies! In all the years I deal with aquariums I am almost used NOT to find the body of a dead fish...what happens to them??

Can somebody tell me how much time they can remain in the water or if its possible that the other s eat them..? I really can´t think of something logical.. 8O 8O 8O

 

[Thebluyak]

they die and sit on the bottem and the other fish eat the bodie, my cichlids did that to my tetras, i even watched them one time. Generally after that you will see a nitrate spike from all the ammonia being converted

 

[hc8719]

in two incidents, while i was on vacation. i lost a platy, and a neon, and didnt realize it for awhile. im sure my pleco takes care of them...

 

[Ferret_Friend]

Depends on the fish in the tank, but sometimes they get eaten, othertimes, they end up like that one sock in the dryer. You can never find it.

 

[AquaJoe]

I have also had this happen in my tank(s). Mainly with female Bettas. I'm really not sure what happened to them and to be honest I was pretty upset that I could not find the bodies as I usually burry fish that pass on out in my yard.

Sorry for your loss

Best,
Joe

 

[kostasonia]

I'm also really upset when I can not find the bodie of a fish...Anyway, I did a test in the water and nothing strange seems to be happening.

My previous (tiny) tank (30L=8G) got overpopulated with guppies. For a period I had 17 fishes!!

The system ended up crashing. Only 4 survived. But I never found ANY body...They were ALL guppies there inside.

 

[Musket]

It's those alien fish nappers again.

 

[Pinky]

yeah one of my tiger barbs wen't missing the other day, it was like oh there she is just swimming along, then the next day she was gone and i haven't seen her since. i looked all over, under the tank and behind my desk for her, but i guess my CAE had a lovely fish filet that night lol

 

[7Enigma]

Do you have cats?

If yes, there is your answer......

 

[kostasonia]

I hav 1 corydora...2 or 3 years old, alone (should actually go and get some more)...

 

[hc8719]

Do you have cats?

If yes, there is your answer......

once my cat actually took my acf out of the tank, downstairs, and into the kitchen. the frog didnt have a scratch on him, just alot of dust and hair.

 

[kostasonia]

ah! you mean real cats!

yes...but they have no access to the aquarium. There are 2 closed doors in between and the aquarium is totaly closed too..!

 

[Burks]

I lost two Oto's over a period of 24 hours, never found any bodies at all! Not sure if my snails were to blame for cleaning up so quickly or what.

Lost a Kuhli Loach last night for no reason. Luckily I found his tail just barely sticking up about the gravel. If I wasn't looking at just the right angle, I would have never of found his body. That would have more than likely killed my guppy fry with the ammonia spike.

 

[Billsgate]

I lost two Oto's over a period of 24 hours, never found any bodies at all! Not sure if my snails were to blame for cleaning up so quickly or what.

Lost a Kuhli Loach last night for no reason. Luckily I found his tail just barely sticking up about the gravel. If I wasn't looking at just the right angle, I would have never of found his body. That would have more than likely killed my guppy fry with the ammonia spike.

I too lost an oto once but only noticed late I guess, because I saw what had been an oto skin (transparant) filled with Malaysian trumpet snails (MTS) who ate it.
It depends on your system if it can take the load of a dead fish without causing trouble. Imagine a never found neon tetra in a 250gallon tank. You'd probably never even notice water quality-wise.

 

[Guest]

i generally find them well decomposed under a pile of snails hiding in ornaments or plants. sometimes even slightly buried in substrate.

 

[Reechard]

A fish can die, get picked at by his tankmates, decay and get washed into the filter overnight. The environment is ideal for bacterial decomposition, it's wet, it's (relatively) warm, and there's plenty of food (dead fish). OR it's aliens.

 

[kostasonia]

In any case though, fishes have a head, spine, fins...I mean...parts that can not be really eaten and they can not be decomposed in something like 12 or 16 hours...

 

[feeder_guppy]

Snails do eat dead fish fast, i had a fish die once. It took about half a day, maybe less. all i found was part of the spine. And if they stick the the filter intake, they can get sucked apart a fair bit in my experience.

 

[kostasonia]

what kind of snails??? Do you think I could have snails i can´t see around??

 

[trotty]

Imagine a never found neon tetra in a 250gallon tank. You'd probably never even notice water quality-wise.

TRUE
Doesn't seem to bother a 240 gal! LOL
kind of get use to missing small fish with 2 25 cm BGK 8O
I usually leave the dead tetras in the tank, they're always eaten by the plecos....
I've got a very good clean up crew!