Where do fish go when they die(Serious question)

[Kuroth]

Ok please don't reply fish heaven.

I got a 3 Gal tank that is doing well.. I have 2 Tetras. Last week one of my Tetras disappeared. I did not see it for 3 days. Thought it was dead. Then all of a sudden I saw it again. It was out swimming BUT it was swimming vertically. I looked this up and it said it could be a blatter infection. Over about 4 days it slowly looked better and started swimming right. Then this past Saturday it disappeared again. And I have not seen it since. 3 days now..

Now my question.. If this fish died, where the heck is it.. I have looked all around my tank as best I can and I don't see it anywhere..
I am not going to tear my tank apart looking for it but would sure like to get it out of my tank if it's dead..

I am puzzled I can't find it.. Maybe its still alive.. uggggg..

 

[Essjay]

Dead fish decompose. That is not instant but they will eventually disappear to just a skeleton.

Other fish etc eat them. To fish, snails shrimps, whatever else is in the tank, a dead fish is food. The other day I spotted my amano shrimps pushing something round on the bottom of the tank. It turned out to be virtually a skeleton, very little left apart from bones, and a quick head count revealed one of my last remaining, very elderly espei rasboras was no longer swimming round. It was there the day before.

 

[CaptainBarnicles]

I very rarely find any dead fish, my amanos make short work of the deceased

 

[Magnum Man]

a comment... when I was into fish 15 years ago I seem to remember dead fish floated... of the few I've lost since I got back into them... I can only remember finding one floater... I get it, some probably wedge themselves into some place on their final swim... but I've found several laying on the bottom, out in the open... they sure were a lot easier to remove when they were floating on top...

maybe because I generally haven't been using aquarium salt, with the live plants... back then, no live plants, so more aquarium salt... guessing that might make a difference in the buoyancy of a dead body???

 

[Essjay]

Could be. it is said that is is very easy to swim in the Dead Sea as it's so salty, and if that applies to human swimmers it may well apply to dead fish as well.

 

[Boundava]

With plecos in almost all of my tanks, any MIA fish are assumed fish food. Fish, snails and shrimp are very opportunistic so unless you're able to see the fish die/find the dead fish relatively soon after death you can bet it was disposed of by the tank's inhabitants.

 

[Sgooosh]

I very rarely find any dead fish, my amanos make short work of the deceased

yeah I have giant cories that only leave skeletons after a day

Ok please don't reply fish heaven.

I got a 3 Gal tank that is doing well.. I have 2 Tetras. Last week one of my Tetras disappeared. I did not see it for 3 days. Thought it was dead. Then all of a sudden I saw it again. It was out swimming BUT it was swimming vertically. I looked this up and it said it could be a blatter infection. Over about 4 days it slowly looked better and started swimming right. Then this past Saturday it disappeared again. And I have not seen it since. 3 days now..

Now my question.. If this fish died, where the heck is it.. I have looked all around my tank as best I can and I don't see it anywhere..
I am not going to tear my tank apart looking for it but would sure like to get it out of my tank if it's dead..

I am puzzled I can't find it.. Maybe its still alive.. uggggg..

do a water change, and gravel vacuum. That way you will focus on looking at every nook and cranny of gravel and also disturb the water, and you will find the (dead or alive) fish
dead fish are ghostly white.
check your filter input and inside the filter as well

 

[vince82]

a comment... when I was into fish 15 years ago I seem to remember dead fish floated... of the few I've lost since I got back into them... I can only remember finding one floater... I get it, some probably wedge themselves into some place on their final swim... but I've found several laying on the bottom, out in the open... they sure were a lot easier to remove when they were floating on top...

maybe because I generally haven't been using aquarium salt, with the live plants... back then, no live plants, so more aquarium salt... guessing that might make a difference in the buoyancy of a dead body???

Also probably how long they were dead for and wether or not they died of swim-bladder related problems.
It's common in goldfish, but also in other fish, that a swollen swim bladder makes them unable to swim correctly and float up when they die

 

[Magnum Man]

I mean no offense to gold fish keepers ( I have tin foil barbs, the gold fish's cousin right now ) but I never had gold fish, when I was into fish when I was younger

 

[vince82]

I mean no offense to gold fish keepers ( I have tin foil barbs, the gold fish's cousin right now ) but I never had gold fish, when I was into fish when I was younger

No, same. I don't like selective breeding for ornamental features. I like my aquarium to look as natural as possible.

 

[Magnum Man]

I've always liked natural looking or specific species tanks... I did some koi for a while towards the end 15 years ago... but I was younger then, most of my fish were huge, or fighters... I didn't do much with smaller or more common fish ( I did keep molly's in brackish for a while, for the babies as feeders for my sea horses ) but I started feeling guilty about how many pretty fish & sea horses I personally killed in those years, & my biggest salt water tank turned into a lion fish tank ( no guilt there... invasive species, & they were like a salt water Oscar... lasted for years )

 

[emeraldking]

I like both disciplines : Biotope and cultivated tanks. But biotope tanks do have my first choice.