Dead fish in the rock work...

[rbryn]

Sooo I have a quandary... had a blue Chromis die and get stuck deep in the rock work. There is no human way possible to retrieve this corpse without tearing apart all the rock work (about 80lbs of liverock) and disturbing everything. Do I leave it and let the CUC feast on it and hope the tank will regulate everything or tear all the rock work apart.

Tank Specs (water quality measured this morning)
Newly cycled 120gl
40gl sump
Ammonia 0
Nitrites 0
Nitrates 5

 

[3dees]

I lost a royal gramma in my 120. never saw where it died. my cuc did the job. a small fish in a 120 shouldn't be a problem as long as you keep up on your wc's.

 

[ReefKeep66]

How long has it already been dead in there? You might see a little spike in ammoina. But then again, a small chromis in a 120g might not cause too much of a problem.

 

[Nina51]

go have a cup of coffee. by the time you get back, your cuc will have full tummies.

 

[toothybugs]

Wouldn't worry about it. I had a trio of fish pass away from a bum heater a few weeks ago and I never saw a spike in anything. CUC did the job fast.

There's a good chance by the time you read this you'll have less than half a fish left anyway.

 

[cloak]

Like mentioned above, your CUC will probably dispose of the body, but you might want to use a power head and see if you can dislodge the corpse first.
I would much rather remove anything that has died than just leave it there, CUC or not.

 

[lagatbezan]

Like mentioned above, your CUC will probably dispose of the body, but you might want to use a power head and see if you can dislodge the corpse first.
I would much rather remove anything that has died than just leave it there, CUC or not.

+1.
Personally my main concern would be why the fish died in the first place.

 

[gone fishin]

You should be fine. But, if at all possible I try to remove them.

 

[TwistedMind]

Same problem, wife texted me telling me my potters angelfish wasn't looking so hot, 6 hours later she texted me saying he was dead and stuck in the rocks with no way to retrieve. 3 hours later I got home, checked where he died and my clean up crew was going to town on him.

Suck I lost a 80 dollar fish, but my clean up crew made short work of him, he was nothing but bones this morning. I'll monitor ammonia for the next few days but I'm notnotworried. I lost a fat blue reef chromis couldn't find his corpse and I only registered a .25 ppm ammonia spike that was gone 12 hours later. You have built a ecosystem, now let it work for you.

 

[MiracleFish]

I lost a yellow headed watchman in my 6g... Yeah.. Lost.. I havent found his skeleton either yet LOL

Phosphates read .05ppm

Nitrates read 0ppm

I don't worry about anything. Tank runs on its own.

 

[kmbyrnes]

Sorry for your loss, but I doubt it will cause water issues.
I recently lost some fish during a tank move. Yesterday I found the full skeleton of my large Clarkii stuck against the powerhead intake. Not a bit of flesh left on the it.
No ammonia spike.

 

[Teenreefer15]

This shouldn't be a problem, your CUC should clear it up within a day or two.