Dead Neon tetra can't find

rockhoe14er

rockhoe14er

AC Members
Jul 19, 2010
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Richmond VA
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Sean
Hey guys as some of you might know i have a cork scape. One problem with the territories i have made is that for the life of me i know i have a dead neon tetra but can't find him at all. Hes been dead in the tank for probably around 5 days now. I have been doing a 50% water change daily to put my water at safe levels for my fish.

Is this really really bad to have a dead fish in your tank? how long will it take for him to decompose completely? I get a nitrite peak close to .75 ppm but i have been using prime and the water changes keeps that pretty close to .1.

I have been trying to find the fish and would love to remove him but can't find him but because of my nitrite peaks i know he is in there. My fish seem fine only 3 neon tetra's and 1 apisto cac in a heavily planted tank.

What do you guys think about this. I can potentially move these guys into a breeding net in my 75 gallon while my green terror stares at them. or do you think i should be fine as long as i keep up the large water changes until the poor deceased has finally been completely decomposed.


my water temperature is at 76 degrees
 
I had an oto die and never found him in a 29 gal w/ plants and multiple fish. It didn't have near the effects that you are having, so my input may be somewhat mute.

In my opinion, you should be fine. Keep looking for him, as you are, but in actuality, something as small as a neon tetra won't take long at all to decompose. Keep monitoring your nitrates as you do, but those levels aren't deadly for your fish. This does not mean you can let it get too extreme.

And remember, some nitrate removers are actually nullifiers. This means they make the nitrates not harmful. They will still show up on your test results even though they aren't deadly.
 
He's talking about nitrite not nitrate. Don't confuse them.

A single dead neon's unlikely to have this much affect on water quality. It's probably been eaten by now anyway.
 
KarlTh said:
A single dead neon's unlikely to have this much affect on water quality. It's probably been eaten by now anyway.
Click to expand...

Yep, after 5 days there is not going to be much if anything left at all to have any effect on water quality. I would quit worrying about it.
 
yeah i realize that's how prime works. I just wanted to make sure it wasn't cruel to keep them in the tank because i have searched long and hard for this guy and still can't seem to find him. I'm also pretty sure he didn't jump out because the top of my tank is pretty much completely sealed. My only worry is that his body would attract bad bacteria so that's why i am doing such large water changes.
 
Neons are small and yes notorious for decomposing readily so no worries though water changes are always good .... :)
 
i had a betta die in a 5 gallon with a huge amount of blackworms living in the sand, 2 mystery snails, too many pond snails to count and at the time, 3 cherry shrimp.it has java moss, spath, lucky bamboo and java fern. its sorta like a riparium but not quite. i could not find him for 2 days and i lifted up the driftwood and there was a little skeleton crawling with blackworms. a neon tetra should be fine in a 29 with plants.
 
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