i have a 6- line wrasse that i have not seen in 2-days i was moving some rock around and he might have been crushed in the sand .sometimes he buries himself in the sand but always comes out for feeding . he always shows up for brine shrimp or pellet food. he is 6+ years old . if he is dead do i need to get his carcass out of my 3+ inch deep sand bed? will it hurt my water quality since he is very small if i leave him in there?
dead wrasse
- Thread starter paul692
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I think it would always be preferred to remove the body but I've never found even a trace of either of the two fish that have died in my biocube with no direct effect that I could tell. A strong CUC might have already disposed of the remains.
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What both of them said. If he is in fact dead, stirring up your sand bed excessively may be more detrimental to your water quality than the dead fish.
+1 You could cause more problems by stirring up the sand bed, if the tank has been up for a while it should be able to handle the bioload of the wrasses body. Check behind the tank, I have had one jump while I was relocating rock.
I
Iits a 75 gal FOWLR checked the floor and the overflow twice have about 12 snails nassarius .i dont want to stir the sand since it is over 6 years old im sure there is some smelly stuff in there for sure all other fish are fine only 2 to be exact powder blue tang and a goby. thanks
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Throw some hermits or an emerald in there 
Nassarius snails are omnivores. If there is/was a body, they'll find and consume it.
3" sand bed - do you typically vacuum it? (if not, you should, but starting that you'd need to be careful). 3" is too deep for a shallow sand bed, and too shallow for a deep sand bed. If it isn't vacuumed it can cause issues when it is eventually disturbed deeper than the Nassarius typically burrow.
I've seen fishes "vanish" for a while and then reappear but after 6 years, its habits should be pretty predictable. I'd assume it has perished, but if it's a mature tank, it's unlikely to mess up the chemistry. It's more likely that either the Nassarius and/or bristleworms, hermits and other clean up creatures have already disposed of it.
Jenn
3" sand bed - do you typically vacuum it? (if not, you should, but starting that you'd need to be careful). 3" is too deep for a shallow sand bed, and too shallow for a deep sand bed. If it isn't vacuumed it can cause issues when it is eventually disturbed deeper than the Nassarius typically burrow.
I've seen fishes "vanish" for a while and then reappear but after 6 years, its habits should be pretty predictable. I'd assume it has perished, but if it's a mature tank, it's unlikely to mess up the chemistry. It's more likely that either the Nassarius and/or bristleworms, hermits and other clean up creatures have already disposed of it.
Jenn
