TheSilentPerogy
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- Sep 27, 2005
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Something bizarre happened in my planted 60 gallon tank yesterday. It's home to 4 Yoyo Loaches, 5 Congo Tetras, 5 Otos, a Yellow Spiny Eel and a Royal Pleco. Stats, in advance, are: A: 0ppm, NI: 0ppm, NA: 5ppm.
My largest loach, approximately 4 inches long and reasonably thick, disappeared. He didn't show up during feeding time yesterday and I can't remember if I saw him in the morning when I turned on the lights (I'm really groggy before I head to work). He had been there the previous day and was feeding happily.
The loaches like their hiding spots, so I checked through all my clumps of plants and driftwood, to no avail. I began to panic and checked my two HOB filters (which have their outputs strained to prevent loach and eel entry) - no dice. At this point I remember that my external Fluval 304 filter hasn't had its normal output flow for the past few weeks. In a panic, I rip apart the Fluval, thinking that the loach might have somehow entered the output tube (the input is strained, with no possible method of entry). No loach nor loach remains. Everything was fine, even the impeller. One of the trays with filter floss had become plugged with filth which led to the reduced flow, but no loach (though the Fluval runs beautifully again now).
However, the plot thickens (*NOT* for the squeamish): I noticed something small and white near a piece of driftwood after I had taken apart the Fluval. I reached in and pulled it out, not sure what to make of it. I tugged on it and it separated, revealing...pieces of a tiny spinal cord.
Now, I wasn't sure at this point if it was from my loach or if an Oto might have bit the dust (or water, anyway) without my knowing, since they're a huge pain to all spot at once in a heavily planted tank.
It's at this point I decide to put on my Sherlock Holmes cap and try to figure out what happened. I started off by rounding up a list of suspects seen near the crime scene:
3 Yoyo Loaches (one with a VERY full belly; all one to two inches smaller than the victim)
5 Congo Tetras (mini-pirahnas to be sure, but they would flee whenever the big loach came near, since he was about double their size)
1 Yellow Spiny Eel (maybe 1/3 an inch longer than the loach, but not nearly as thick)
1 Royal Pleco (herbivore, though a potential clean-up crew for the body; only about 4 inches long)
5 Otos (...yeah, right)
Then this morning (*squeamish warning again*) I was browsing through the tank to check if the loach may have miraculously shown up and the spine was from an Oto instead. Nope, still missing. Though I saw something white on a blade of Valisneria that I must have missed yesterday. I took some tweasers and pulled it out to find...a small piece of white skin with a small fragment of bone attached. My loach has definitely been a victim of things most foul.
So my current theory is that something happened to the loach that lead to his death overnight, ending with him being devoured by his bretheren. He was the muscle in the tank and there's no way that any of the other fish could have or would have killed him; he would have to have been dead first. Nonetheless, I would still think there would be more remains than just a few fragments of bone. Any ideas? Theories? Similar experiences? Thanks for reading this long mess.
My largest loach, approximately 4 inches long and reasonably thick, disappeared. He didn't show up during feeding time yesterday and I can't remember if I saw him in the morning when I turned on the lights (I'm really groggy before I head to work). He had been there the previous day and was feeding happily.
The loaches like their hiding spots, so I checked through all my clumps of plants and driftwood, to no avail. I began to panic and checked my two HOB filters (which have their outputs strained to prevent loach and eel entry) - no dice. At this point I remember that my external Fluval 304 filter hasn't had its normal output flow for the past few weeks. In a panic, I rip apart the Fluval, thinking that the loach might have somehow entered the output tube (the input is strained, with no possible method of entry). No loach nor loach remains. Everything was fine, even the impeller. One of the trays with filter floss had become plugged with filth which led to the reduced flow, but no loach (though the Fluval runs beautifully again now).
However, the plot thickens (*NOT* for the squeamish): I noticed something small and white near a piece of driftwood after I had taken apart the Fluval. I reached in and pulled it out, not sure what to make of it. I tugged on it and it separated, revealing...pieces of a tiny spinal cord.
Now, I wasn't sure at this point if it was from my loach or if an Oto might have bit the dust (or water, anyway) without my knowing, since they're a huge pain to all spot at once in a heavily planted tank.
It's at this point I decide to put on my Sherlock Holmes cap and try to figure out what happened. I started off by rounding up a list of suspects seen near the crime scene:
3 Yoyo Loaches (one with a VERY full belly; all one to two inches smaller than the victim)
5 Congo Tetras (mini-pirahnas to be sure, but they would flee whenever the big loach came near, since he was about double their size)
1 Yellow Spiny Eel (maybe 1/3 an inch longer than the loach, but not nearly as thick)
1 Royal Pleco (herbivore, though a potential clean-up crew for the body; only about 4 inches long)
5 Otos (...yeah, right)
Then this morning (*squeamish warning again*) I was browsing through the tank to check if the loach may have miraculously shown up and the spine was from an Oto instead. Nope, still missing. Though I saw something white on a blade of Valisneria that I must have missed yesterday. I took some tweasers and pulled it out to find...a small piece of white skin with a small fragment of bone attached. My loach has definitely been a victim of things most foul.
So my current theory is that something happened to the loach that lead to his death overnight, ending with him being devoured by his bretheren. He was the muscle in the tank and there's no way that any of the other fish could have or would have killed him; he would have to have been dead first. Nonetheless, I would still think there would be more remains than just a few fragments of bone. Any ideas? Theories? Similar experiences? Thanks for reading this long mess.
