Not seen one of my favorite Koi around lately. Got a large pond and its pretty murky right now so he may be in there but, I usually see them all at least once a day. Not seen any signs of predators but, not ruling it out. If a fish dies do they sink or float? I'm thinking that they sink at first and then as they decompose they float. Is this correct?
Will a dead fish float?
- Thread starter Airic
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Depends how they die. If they have a full swim bladder when they die they will float. If not, they will sink.
If they don't float right away, they will in time due to the gas that is generated in decomposition. Just like humans.
Thats what I was thinking, would gas eventually and then float. I did end up seeing him the other day and he's doing fine, but good to know for future reference. I do a count almost every day and find that he doesnt show his face very often now. Must of found a good hiding spot.
we had a koi "disappear" over the winter...we saw it in the fall and then in the spring it was nowhere to be found...our local pond expert thought decomp and other fish eating it...does that sound plausible?
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That sounds like a fair assumption.
The bones would probably remain.
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It's possible, but my first suspicion would be a predator. Welcome to the forums, by the way, @tengbells.
I tend to agree with dieselp;power there will be some remains left over both bones and teeth as well as part of the inner ear both sides , the larger the koi the larger the teeth .
Dave
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@tengbells I've had it happen all ways, but mostly either floating or the fish is just....gone. Actually, I don't recall scooping any remains from the bottom, now that I think about it. My first thought was alien abduction [just kidding]. I would one day notice that a fish wasn't there any more. I also thought about predators, but figured if it was a predator that I would be loosing more than just the occas. fish. But I only have goldfish, so don't know if I would even find remains.
Hope you can figure it out.
And if I didn't already say so, WELCOME!
Hope you can figure it out.
And if I didn't already say so, WELCOME!
Aaron S
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Have you seen any black helicopters hovering around lately?
Never know what those drunken Eskimo Leprechauns from Swaziland are up to
The koi that disappeared was the smallest and had gone into hiding for several weeks at a time before...we cleaned the pond and didn't find any remains. I would think that if it was predators I would have been missing more than one fish. My friend lost eight in one afternoon to a blue heron. No evidence of critters getting into our yard with a high privacy fence. Thankfully no other fish have disappeared!
When I have list a fish they didn't float. I have 3 pretty strong sub pump they move ALOT of water and I have always found any dead fish stuck to the side of one of them. I guess the current sucks it towards it.
Good luck
Good luck