Handling of an (unfindable) dead fish in a tank

Hi,

Anybody have any advice on how to succesfully break one of the most
fundamental rules in fishkeeping......?

I must assume that I have a dead adult (~10cm long) Pseudotropheus Acei in
my 240 litre Malawi aquarium. The fish looked decidedly off colour for a
day, and disappeared. The tank is quite heavily stocked (not initially,
but the way the critters breed (especially the Labidochromis) - and hide
(catching impossible)!) and filtered by a large 3 basket Eheim external
canister filter (~1000lph) and a 25W UV filter.

The tank has 2 remaining Pseudotropheus acei, uncountable Labidochromis
Ceruleus (5-6 adults, many juveniles), 4 Pseudotropheus Kingsizei, 4-5
adult and many juvenile Iodotropheous sprengerae and a pair of ancistrus.

In a nutshell I cannot find the missing fish. The entire back wall is built
up of stacked pumice and limestone which is glued in. Removing this wall
will necessitate a complete tank emptying and strip down. Suffice to say I
have poked a torch / hand into every accesible hole and moved every rock
that I dare. Short of emptying the tank, my options on finding the fish
are closed.

I have two options, the complete tank strip down, or to try and ride the
tank through the inevitable decomposition. I am hoping to manage the
latter.

My plan:

1. Reduced feeding, the fish will be fed once every three days instead of
daily.
2. Increased and forced oxygenation (airstone + extra eheim powerhead).
3. Daily 30% water changes.
4. Monitoring - I use anyhow an ammonia alert in the tank, and will start
doing daily nitrite and nitrate readings.

I am guessing that 2 weeks should be sufficient time for the fish to
completely decompose, and intend to follow the above regime for that time
(comments?).

The filter is due a clean (~1month since the last one), but since it is
still fast flowing I feel it best not to disturb its bacterial population
whilst the biological load will be rising.

Any advice welcomed, especially from someone who has practical experience of
managing something like this. Am I worrying too much, or not enough?

Cheers,

Gary Whitehead.

"Gary Whitehead" wrote in message
...
Hi,

Anybody have any advice on how to succesfully break one of the most
fundamental rules in fishkeeping......?

I must assume that I have a dead adult (~10cm long) Pseudotropheus Acei
in
my 240 litre Malawi aquarium. The fish looked decidedly off colour for
a
day, and disappeared. The tank is quite heavily stocked (not
initially,
but the way the critters breed (especially the Labidochromis) - and
hide
(catching impossible)!) and filtered by a large 3 basket Eheim external
canister filter (~1000lph) and a 25W UV filter.

The tank has 2 remaining Pseudotropheus acei, uncountable Labidochromis
Ceruleus (5-6 adults, many juveniles), 4 Pseudotropheus Kingsizei, 4-5
adult and many juvenile Iodotropheous sprengerae and a pair of
ancistrus.

In a nutshell I cannot find the missing fish. The entire back wall is
built
up of stacked pumice and limestone which is glued in. Removing this
wall
will necessitate a complete tank emptying and strip down. Suffice to
say I
have poked a torch / hand into every accesible hole and moved every
rock
that I dare. Short of emptying the tank, my options on finding the
fish
are closed.

I have two options, the complete tank strip down, or to try and ride
the
tank through the inevitable decomposition. I am hoping to manage the
latter.

My plan:

1. Reduced feeding, the fish will be fed once every three days instead
of
daily.
2. Increased and forced oxygenation (airstone + extra eheim powerhead).
3. Daily 30% water changes.
4. Monitoring - I use anyhow an ammonia alert in the tank, and will
start
doing daily nitrite and nitrate readings.

I am guessing that 2 weeks should be sufficient time for the fish to
completely decompose, and intend to follow the above regime for that
time
(comments?).

The filter is due a clean (~1month since the last one), but since it is
still fast flowing I feel it best not to disturb its bacterial
population
whilst the biological load will be rising.

Any advice welcomed, especially from someone who has practical
experience of
managing something like this. Am I worrying too much, or not enough?

Cheers,

Gary Whitehead.

I can only tell you my expectations, someone else can judge it. At
350-400 litres, a 10cm fish will not make much of an impression to a
tank's biology, so I just don't overfeed and keep a watch for the corpse
(as it gets lighter, it might come loose from wherever it wedged itself).
At 240 litre, I'm a bit more worried about the biological load, but I
would still be tempted to take a low key approach (don't overfeed, don't
mess with the filters, watch for the corpse to appear). You can check
the ammonia level every couple of days, but ordinarily, an established
bacterial culture should not have too much trouble expanding to the
requirements of a single corpse. If anything, be a bit more diligent in
your gravel vacuuming for a month (it's a similar decay which you don't
want adding to the total).
--
www.NetMax.tk

Thanks for the advice.

I now definitely have signs of a dead fish, oil on the water surface (fixed
by switching in the surface sucker), bits (yuch), some smell (for once the
cleaning siphon is loaded from the tap, I am not sucking on it!). Main
filter not touched, added the powerhead and another small canister filter
loaded with carbon - which I am hoping will remove some of the organics and
smell (I am working on the basis that if it is more comfortable for us, it
will also be for the fish). To date ammonia and nitrites OK (as far as I
can tell from the colour chart, close to zero on both). Fish are hungry,
arerated and 30% water changes ongoing...

I will let you know what happens.

Cheers,

Gary.

"NetMax" wrote in message m...
be sufficient time for the fish to

I can only tell you my expectations, someone else can judge it. At
350-400 litres, a 10cm fish will not make much of an impression to a
tank's biology, so I just don't overfeed and keep a watch for the corpse
(as it gets lighter, it might come loose from wherever it wedged itself).
At 240 litre, I'm a bit more worried about the biological load, but I
would still be tempted to take a low key approach (don't overfeed, don't
mess with the filters, watch for the corpse to appear). You can check
the ammonia level every couple of days, but ordinarily, an established
bacterial culture should not have too much trouble expanding to the
requirements of a single corpse. If anything, be a bit more diligent in
your gravel vacuuming for a month (it's a similar decay which you don't
want adding to the total).

I agree with this response, as usual NetMax rocks. If the tank is well
established and well maintained, you won't notice any changes
whatsoever and everything will be normal. --Mark