Investigating a "dead fish" scenario

[tzylak]

My Mandarin disappeared. It probably starved after a 3-month self-imposed fast. Yet I cannot find the corpse.

1. Bodies float, but not until the gastric gasses float it to the top. -I found nothing floating on the surface.
2. One would think that the CUC eat the body. -Yet I found all the shrimp and hermits at the front and eating when fed like there is no tomorrow.
3. #1 and 2 did not apply when my Royal Gramma disappeared either.

So, what are the absolute indicators of a dead fish??
Help!

 

[m0nkie]

tank size? if tank is fairly small, you can usually notice a raise in ammonia when your fish dies..

and don't be so sure about #2. My CUC can eat a half dead shrimp within minutes.. nothing left. I watched it happen..

Mandarins is always out hunting pods, so if you don't see it, it's probably dead and eaten

 

[Sk8r]

This is why you cycled your tank. If it's not living, it decomposes, fast, with the help of all those bacteria you bred. That's their job---theirs and the cuc.

 

[Pomacanthus1]

If you have a good amount of live rock and all of the life that comes with it, chances are it's already eaten and gone. Whenever I happen to lose a fish, they just disappear. Once or twice, I think I may have found some bones under a rock.

 

[VAReefDog]

+1 to bacteria and CUC. Over the last year- I have lost 3 small fish- completely covered tank- so no jumpers possible. Every single one- fish was seen during the day without signs and was gone in the am. No body or bones or other parts ever found.
That is the job of a clean up crew.

 

[Silvergryphon]

I doubt it was a "self-imposed fast". Mandarins eat TONS of pods, if you didn't have many in your tank, it probably starved due to lack of available pods to eat.

 

[Xavibear]

I doubt it was a "self-imposed fast". Mandarins eat TONS of pods, if you didn't have many in your tank, it probably starved due to lack of available pods to eat.

I agree.

 

[Pomacanthus1]

I doubt it was a "self-imposed fast". Mandarins eat TONS of pods, if you didn't have many in your tank, it probably starved due to lack of available pods to eat.

This too. What were you trying to feed it?

 

[tzylak]

Posts #6, #7 AND #8, Please, I am fully aware of the Mandarin starvation. I do feel awful about getting the fish in the first place.
Still, I gave it black worms, white worms, all the frozen food available. -It would just fan away the food, whether it was still wriggling or not.
I did purchase pods but the clowns probably got most of it.
I did my best, enough said. . . . Tom