Fish died and i cant find it.

[sagwala]

Had a disaster with my heater exploding and the temp got quite cool before i noticed it when i got back from work. 2 of my chromis have died since, I managed to find one and take it out but the other must be right under the rocks as i cant find him anywhere. Amazingly everything else seems ok and are doing fine.

Q. Do i need to find this fish and get him out. Or will i be ok. I'm guesing my crabs will have a feast but i'm worried that i'll have spikes of all things bad. I'm keeping an eye on the parameters and will do lots of water changes if things begin to rise.

Arrrrggggg!!!!!!! And everything was going so well.

 

[michaeldaly]

I don't think one dead fish will cause a ammonia spike unless it was very large.

 

[Shagsbeard]

In a larger tank, I wouldn't worry so much, but 40 gal is right on the edge of the "You better get that out now" and "I would leave it in". You might try altering the flow in the tank and see if you can blow it out from under what ever it's hiding under.

How did your heater explode? I've never seen that happen. Sometimes they get stuck on, sometime off, but I've never seen one explode.

 

[tropicalfishguy]

Do you have lots of crabs? I had a small dwarf lionfish die once, when I turned on the lights the next morning, the crabs had eaten well over 50% of him. So if it was small chromis, he could be gone already

 

[sagwala]

I've tried the blowing it out idea, no luck. As for it exploding i don't know, When i got back from work i opened the stand door to find the heater in about a ten pieces, with some of them making it out of my sump itself, i pulled my return pump to pieces to see if any got in there but it looker as though the plastic cover caught all of it.

Do you think if i keep on top of the water changes i'll be ok. The fish was about 1 1/2".

Cheers everbody.

 

[Sk8r]

If you have a lot of bristleworms, you're ok. Crabs help, too.

 

[tropicalfishguy]

Ya as I said before, don't sweat it. As long as everything looks
ok and your parameters are fine, its ok. Normally in my 55g reef if something goes missing I don't even bother looking for it. Some fish
go in and never come out

 

[saturn tech]

i had a single chromis die on me, never found a trace of it.

 

[amike5]

Any inverts you have (crabs, shrimp, hermits, etc) will take care of it for you before an ammonia problem occurs.

 

[JeffersonReef]

I would do 5-10g water changes over the next few days to be safe. You will likely get a small cycle... esp if your tank isnt that mature. Like every one else said, you are prolly OK... but be safe and do water changes, since 40g is considered "smaller". As for the fish.... it is already GONE! I guess thats the beauty of a reef tank vs a FO tank... your cleanup crew's GOT YO BACK! LOL