Dead Fish - How long till ammonia spikes?

[JaaxReef]

I have a Dragon Goby that has recently started being harassed by my golden tilefish and hasn’t eaten in a week. He was barely swimming around yesterday afternoon looking super skinny and weak, but I’m worried he might die while I’m at work today or that he did over night. If I get it out of there within 24 hours, will I still see an ammonia spike? I have a fairly mature 1 1/2 year old 45 gallon cube.

Any insight on how long until a body would start rotting and ruining my tank would be appreciated.

Thank you for your time!

 

[andys]

Most likely you will see no evidence in water chemistry. The tank should be mature enough to deal with it.

 

[JaaxReef]

Most likely you will see no evidence in water chemistry. The tank should be mature enough to deal with it.

Sounds good. I just got a new Ice Fire Echinata frag on Saturday and I don’t want it to be affected by an ammonia spike...

 

[Crabs McJones]

Most likely you will see no evidence in water chemistry. The tank should be mature enough to deal with it.

Agreed, but if you want to make absolutely sure it wouldn't hurt anything to do an ammonia test just incase ;)

 

[JaaxReef]

Agreed, but if you want to make absolutely sure it wouldn't hurt anything to do an ammonia test just incase ;)

Thanks.

I will do so. And pull the fish out ASAP. I think it might have died in its cave it loved so much this morning so that will be interesting to get it out with some angled aquascaping tools...

 

[JaaxReef]

So he was dead in exactly the place I thought he would be when I got home. Removed him from the cave with some Aquavitro 45 degree tweezers and checked ammonia levels. They were zero. :)

 

[ca1ore]

Remove corpses if you can, but don't worry if you cannot. A single dead fish in a decent sized tank is really nothing to fuss over. A mature biofilter will handle it easily. I have literally never measured an ammonia spike from a single death.