We had a death in the family Monday. We have a 92 gallon, well established reef tank, and we came home from work to find that one of our five fish, a rabbitfish, was missing and presumed dead. We searched but could not find him.
Tuesday, we looked some more, lifting some of the live rock to look in the way back parts of the tank...no evidence. We are thinking that before he died he want into some crevice deep inside our "reef".
our dilemma is, do we totally take apart all that rock, disrupting everbody else, to find and remove the body, or do we let take nature take its course and trust that our biological filter and the size of the tank will be adequate to prevent adverse effects? We also have some residents that will serve as scavengers - snails, some hermit crabs, and an urchin
The rabbitfish was between 3 and 4 inches long. We do have some colt and leather corals, and a couple of bubble corals; the tank is not heavily populated. All fish and corals are normal and happy. Have done testing for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and none were detected. We do a 10% water change weekly and would be on schedule to do this over the weekend, but could do it sooner if need be....
Tuesday, we looked some more, lifting some of the live rock to look in the way back parts of the tank...no evidence. We are thinking that before he died he want into some crevice deep inside our "reef".
our dilemma is, do we totally take apart all that rock, disrupting everbody else, to find and remove the body, or do we let take nature take its course and trust that our biological filter and the size of the tank will be adequate to prevent adverse effects? We also have some residents that will serve as scavengers - snails, some hermit crabs, and an urchin
The rabbitfish was between 3 and 4 inches long. We do have some colt and leather corals, and a couple of bubble corals; the tank is not heavily populated. All fish and corals are normal and happy. Have done testing for ammonia, nitrites, nitrates and none were detected. We do a 10% water change weekly and would be on schedule to do this over the weekend, but could do it sooner if need be....
