Dead fish with no CUC

[nyc_love]

Hi there, my 130 gallon DT tank (plus 30 gallon sump) has encountered it's first dead fish (Bimac Anthias that went in last weekend). I have a custom tank which is 42" in height and due to the height of the tank and where the dead fish is located (very bottom of the tank wedged in some rocks), I can't get to it to get it out. I've tried a long pair of tongs but the angle just makes it impossible. The only choice would be to take all the rocks out but that just seems light a nightmare and would stress out all the other fish (1 rock beauty, 1 niger trigger, 1 blue tang, 1 tomini tang, 1 flame angel, 2 maroon clowns, and 2 other Bimac Anthias). I don't have a CUC yet and am planning on putting in some snails in a few months. I am doing a daily 3 gallon water change via a Neptune DOS. My water parameters right now are all perfect. I have a UV sterilizer, carbon reactor, and rowapahos reactor all running 24/7. So my question is, how bad is it to have a dead and decaying fish in the tank with nothing that will eat it? Will my tank be able to handle the increased bioload? Anything I can do to help this? The tank is doing so well and I've been going so slow and now this Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

 

[Tired]

How large is the fish?

Can you get any sort of cleanup critters?

Did you start with dry rock or live, and if live, was it ocean or just bin live?

 

[nyc_love]

The fish is about 2 inches. At the earliest, I can get a couple clean up crew members tomorrow evening at this point. I started with dry rock and live sand.

 

[LordofCinder]

I use a big serving spoon to try to get as close as possible and create a current to try to push the fish along (or loose corals)

Or you can try a powehead and try angling the current to try to push it out where you can reach it.

 

[nyc_love]

I actually tried the power head trick but it's wedged itself into a part of the rock where there is no easy way to blow it out. Using the power head unfortunately just pushed it further it. Sigh.

 

[vetteguy53081]

Hi there, my 130 gallon DT tank (plus 30 gallon sump) has encountered it's first dead fish (Bimac Anthias that went in last weekend). I have a custom tank which is 42" in height and due to the height of the tank and where the dead fish is located (very bottom of the tank wedged in some rocks), I can't get to it to get it out. I've tried a long pair of tongs but the angle just makes it impossible. The only choice would be to take all the rocks out but that just seems light a nightmare and would stress out all the other fish (1 rock beauty, 1 niger trigger, 1 blue tang, 1 tomini tang, 1 flame angel, 2 maroon clowns, and 2 other Bimac Anthias). I don't have a CUC yet and am planning on putting in some snails in a few months. I am doing a daily 3 gallon water change via a Neptune DOS. My water parameters right now are all perfect. I have a UV sterilizer, carbon reactor, and rowapahos reactor all running 24/7. So my question is, how bad is it to have a dead and decaying fish in the tank with nothing that will eat it? Will my tank be able to handle the increased bioload? Anything I can do to help this? The tank is doing so well and I've been going so slow and now this Any help would be greatly appreciated! Thank you!

dental pick works the best
Harbor freight:

 

[Tired]

You should absolutely try to get that out, but you might be okay? Definitely monitor ammonia, but that is a fairly large tank and a fairly small fish.

Definitely get some scavengers in there if you can't pull the fish out. Ceriths might be good- they're multipurpose.

 

[nyc_love]

Update: I put a Ebili Angelfish into the tank this evening and within 2 hours, it was pecking at the dead anthias and got it dislodged and it floated to the top of the tank and I was able to get it out. So I avoided a problem this time! Lesson learned, get a CUC sorted out soon. Also learned: the Ebili Angel is a bully to every other fish in the aquarium

 

[vetteguy53081]

Update: I put a Ebili Angelfish into the tank this evening and within 2 hours, it was pecking at the dead anthias and got it dislodged and it floated to the top of the tank and I was able to get it out. So I avoided a problem this time! Lesson learned, get a CUC sorted out soon. Also learned: the Ebili Angel is a bully to every other fish in the aquarium

Agree and reason i dont have one. Even the eibili tang is a jerk

Eibili.... more like evil eye