How long to dispose of a fish?

[jameson_uk]

I had a Guppy that wasn't looking too great (Was hanging around the surface with slightly clamped fins and a slightly bloated looking stomach).

Was going to put it in a hospital tank in the morning but when I came down the fish was nowhere to be seen.

I have down a big water change since and been though most of the tank but I cannot find any sign of it and there has been no ammonia recorded.

I am guessing the amanos would have made pretty quick work of the body but I would have still expected to see some evidence??? How quickly might they have cleaned things up?

 

[zozo]

You will be amazed how quick it goes.. I've seen a 35mm fish stripped to the bone in about 12 hours by the shrimps and snails. Still alive in the evening and bones in the next morning.. It sounds a bit cruel, but it happens, also seen barely alive weak fish laying on the bottom and snails and shrimps feast on them already before the actualy dead. Nature is cruel, it's eat or be eaten.

It takes a pretty big fish to make it longer than 24 hours if snail and shrimp population is sufficient.. Than i guess 90% of our aqauriums contain planaria giving a helping hand as well.

 

[X3NiTH]

This is the only time I ever found a corpse in a shrimp populated tank!

I seem to remember it was only few hours to get to this stage, I found it under a pile of voracious cherry shrimp.

 

[BubblingUnder]

Fish corpses decompose incredibly quickly in a tropical aquarium temperatures it doesn't take long for fish,shrimp & snails to tuck in.....

 

[jameson_uk]

Just surprised I haven't found a skeleton. I have previously been alerted to dead fish by an amano frenzy and often they seem to end up floating in the frogbit. Absolutely no trace of this one.

As there has been no ammonia picked up I am not too worried and I guess the amanos can go without dinner for a few days now...

 

[sparkyweasel]

Shrimps and snails need calcium for their shells, so they are often very attracted to bones as well as flesh.

 

[alto]

Guppies don’t seem to have much bone structure relative to their plump little bodies

I’ve unpacked (transhipped) show guppy trios - 2 females + bit of mush

 

[Madhav]

we were on holiday for two weeks, once we are back, i did a 50% water change, then next morning I found this...
the evening during water change everything seems to be fine. this is a H. Rasbora btw.