Missing Fish

Hunter74

AC Members
Mar 30, 2005
31
0
0
Vancouver B.C.
I have lost a spiketail paradise fish in my 50 gallon tank. I am pretty sure he died in one of the ornaments. Now my question is, is it ok to leave him in there until I do a cleaning as the one ornament is to big to take out right now as it is all hooked up to an airpump and whatnot. I just want to make sure I am not polluting my tank with a small 1.5 inch fish dead somewhere in there. He has been missing for about 4 or 5 days.
 
A dead fish will increase ammonia production. Depending on the setup, it may or may not be a big deal--if you're 'close' to capacity with the other fish, this could be all it takes to push into a large spike. But, if it's a lightly stocked tank, with plants, the increased ammonia probably will be used rapidly. Or, depending on the other fish, I doubt there will be much left more than 2 days after death--I know this to be the case with bristlenose, cories, and other scavengers.
 
Thanks. The tank is only about a week old, I transfered all of the fish from my 25 gallon to the 50. It isnt very stocked till it cycles, I have 2 Bala sharks, 2 frogs, 2 shrimp, 4 glass cats, 3 cat fish, 3 swordtails, 2 gold dust platty's , 1 puffer, 2 kirbensis, and 2 danios. Half the water in the tank is from my 25 gallon, which was set up for a few months, so it has good bacteria or whatever in it. I am also running an Aqua Clear 70, with the amonia bag, charcoal bag and foam. I did a test on saturday and the PH, Nitrates-a little high as its a new tank, but not too bad. And everything else my tester kit does is within range. I know that may seem like alot of fish for the tank but they are all still on a few months old, the oldest I think is almost 4 months. So they aren't very big yet. But that is the reason I upgraded to the 50 is cause the 25 wouldn't be big enough for them.
 
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Was the AC running on the old tank? Water contains little to no beneficial bactiera, so bringing it over just imports wastes.
 
No this Aqua clear was not running in the last tank, that was only and AC50 and I upgraded to an AC70 for the bigger tank. And I was told by the guy and my local fish store, told me to bring over the water from my old tank, cause of the PH level and everything in it, they were used to, so going into a fresh tank wouldn't be as stressful on them.
 
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Sorry, but that's bad advice. The water should be similar to your tap water, and keeping the conditions similar is important, but bringing in wastes is bad. Without established media, the tank will re-cycle, and that is much more stressful--did you put the media from the AC50 into the new filter?
 
No, the media in the AC70 is new, well almost 2 weeks old now. As the AC50 media does not fit in the AC70 filter it is too small. All my fish seem to be doing good, they swim around and are lively. I was just wonderong about the missing spiketail fish.
 
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