My tiger barb died today! Please answer this question if you are an aquarium expert!?

Question

As of yesterday, I had 4 neon tetras, 3 gold neon tetras, 2 dalmatian mollies, and 4 tiger barbs in my 20 gallon fishtank. Late last night, I looked at my aquarium and saw one my tiger barbs upside down squirming in between rocks. When I woke up this morning he was dead. This is the first time any of my fish have died in the lifetime of the aquarium (1 year, 5 months). Please help me answer these questions:

1) How come when the barb died, he didn't float to the top? I thought when fish die, they float to the top but the tiger barb just is laying at the bottom. I'm positive he is dead by the way.

2) Over the lifetime of the aquarium, the tiger barbs never nipped at the fins of the tetras, even though people have told me that tiger barbs are aggressive and will do so. Now that i have an odd number of tiger barbs (three), will they nip at the other fishes' fins? Is it necessary to buy a fourth barb?

3) Should I flush the fish down the toilet or bury him in my yard?

Thanks in advance.

Answer 1

Fish don't necessarily always float. There bodies fill with gas after they die and this is what causes them to float. You may have removed him before this happened.

With tiger barbs its not a matter of odd or even numbers just as long as the school of barbs is big enough that they "entertain" each other and don't go after the other fish. I wouldn't add another tiger barb your lucky yours aren't harassing there slower moving tank mates and adding another one could change that.

The recommendation from the experts is to not flush them because they can have disease that infect the native fish population because when you flush them they may enter the water supply. The recommendation is to put them in a bag and put them in the trash. That said I usually just flush mine

Answer 2

Well I guess that the fish should be small enuff to flush. It is just a personal preferance on this one because of the size of the fish. If the fish were in a large tank and had been a larger fish this might be a problem.
Yes dead fish do sink to the bottom I have had aquariums for about 20 years now and the fish that die will eventually sink to the bottom as the previous answer stated. That is nothing new.
As far as the barbs nipping goes I would say to just keep a close eye on the fish for a day or two and if you see that the barbs develop slight canabalistic characters you may want to get a new barb or two.
Remember that when you introduce new fish there will be a new pecking order that will be established by the fish so this may hurt more than help. If you bought all of these fish at the same time they are acustomed to one another already. Which may explain why the barbs didnt create too many problems.
There is a saying that says 'one inch of fish per gallon of water'. So by the description of your fish and the size of your tank and the fact that you had the tank set up for over a year I dont think that stress would have been to much of an issue as long as you have been keeping the tank up properly with water changes.
Fish die dude that's just the way it is.
Here is a link to read more about your barbs....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tiger_barb
This link does suggest keeping more of them together as they are a schooling fish.

Answer 3

It wasn't floating when you found it because overnight, the body became waterlogged. Fish only float when they are newly dead, but as they become more and more full of water, they sink.

They likely did nip at the other fish, you just didn't see it. Now that you only have 3 (6 is preferable), you will almost certainly see nipping as a common problem.

If he was one of your favorite fish, bury it, but if it was just another fish that didn't have a personality, flush it.

Soop Nazi

EDIT: The "one inch of fish per gallon of water" "rule" is total crap. Think of how many variables there are that make this untrue (activity level, swimming level, aggression, waste production, filter size, tank dimensions, temperature, and even pH can affect your stocking levels). Could you fit 10 Neons in a 10 gallon tank? Yeah, you sure could. Could you fit a 10 inch Oscar in a 10 gallon tank? Not a chance! The Oscar wouldn't even be able to turn around!

Answer 4

Flush it down the toilet

You've got too many fish in there, and your fish may have died from stress.

I'd not replace him, just let there be less fish in there instead, that way you'll have less stress for the others.

In a tank your size, I'd probably just have the tetras and nothing else.

F-Stop

Answer 5

sometimes when i know my fish are going to die i put them in the freezer in a container of water.i dont know if this is the most humane way of doing it but most of the times when a fish is upside down and the equilibrium is off, its almost a sure sign of death

Answer 6

Maybe it was just his time and died of old age.Did he look or act sick b4 he died?Fish don't always float when they die.Flush him or bury him,its your choice.

Answer 7

i dont know why he died,but i think you should fry him up with a little breadcrumb.in some olive oil.with maybe some lemon,butter garlic and a splash of white wine...or even better yet drizzle some nice hollindaise sauce on him..YUM!