Dead fish decomposing time

[Zalick]

I've read many posts on here about how long it takes a fish to decompose in the reef tank. I didn't find a recent post to reply to so thought I would write this post for others benefit in the future.

I had a 1.5" lyre tail anthia in quarantine. Nothing else was in the tank except some PVC for hiding and a HOB filter.

I went on vacation for 8 days and had someone taking care of my tanks. The lyre tail was not looking well so I knew it might die during the week.

My fish sitter said she saw the lyre tail on day 2 but never again. I got home on day 8 and could not find the lyre tail in the tank. It was enclosed so could not have jumped out. It was not sucked up against the HOB intake, nor inside the filter.

There was a small amount of stringy material that I initially thought was a tiny bit of food. Now, I'm confident it was the remains.

So, a 1.5" lyre tail fully decomposed in a cycled, empty, tank, without any other critters, in 6 days.

Very interesting that a fish can fully decompose in 6 days just from the natural bacteria in the water.

 

[mcgyvr]

Do you not have any crabs or anything?
I've seen animals disappear in hours from crabs,etc..

6 days is not surprising to me at all though..

when I use to bury human remains I would come back..oops.. too far...

 

[ca1ore]

That a fish can be 'reduced' so quickly leads many a reefing novice to search fruitlessly for the 'boogeyman' which must have been the offender (and plenty of fellow reefing novices to enable the misguidance) :lol: I had a group of chalk bassletts in an inescapable QT and one day one of them was just gone ..... nothing, no evidence of the crime at all.

 

[Zalick]

That a fish can be 'reduced' so quickly leads many a reefing novice to search fruitlessly for the 'boogeyman' which must have been the offender (and plenty of fellow reefing novices to enable the misguidance) :lol: I had a group of chalk bassletts in an inescapable QT and one day one of them was just gone ..... nothing, no evidence of the crime at all.

Yup, I was guilty of that in my early days. I thought every other critter in the tank was the culprit and wanted to get rid of em all.

 

[Zalick]

Do you not have any crabs or anything?
I've seen animals disappear in hours from crabs,etc..

6 days is not surprising to me at all though..

when I use to bury human remains I would come back..oops.. too far...

HAHA! Nothing else in the QT but the lyre tail.