A Very Disturbing Discover...

[RainboWBacoN420]

Let me start out by explaining that one of my three tequila sunrise guppies had gone missing about a month ago, (more or less.)
And for the longest time we couldn't figure out what had happened to him. Did he die? Did he jump out? We looked all over for him but couldn't find a sign. We assumed he died and that the loaches had consumed his carcass.

So, while making room my new 55 gallon, I had to get rid of the ten gallon I had. After moving it outside, I moved the stand it was sitting on, and sure enough, there was the dried up guppie, curled and completely dried like a raisan. I put a glove on and toss it in a plastic bag. Studying the dried fish, I notice a maggot crawling out of the gills... Almost made me gag. Anyone else got some tales of their fish jumping out of their home to their doom?

 

[RRaquariums]

I've had a betta jump to its death ain't fun finding a dry betta with your feet. And most recently one of my green chromas decided to go carpet surfing with disastrous results obviously.

 

[fluttermoth]

I can hardly believe what happened this morning in my house!

My son was giving the dog his breakfast, and found one of my hillstream loach in the dog's food bowl! Luckily it was still breathing, so he dropped it back in the tank and it seems to be fine.

Fishy must have climbed out of the tank, along the table and fallen into the bowl. We're so lucky my son happened to be up and spotted it in time

Never had anything like that happen to me before, although my friend had a weather loach end up under the dehumidifier once (that one survived as well!).

I think loaches must be the worst escapers, but I'm sure someone else will have horror stories about other fish

 

[Baccus]

I have found the odd crispy fish, but few and far between, thank goodness. But what does stick in my memory was when a local pet shop was pulling down their racks of tanks to rebuild the tanks and displays and seeing all the crispy fish that had met their doom behind and under the usually enclosed rack system. It may be a sad observation about me that I was able to identify nearly all of the various fish that had gone to the big fish bowl in the sky.

 

[freerunner416]

My brother found my red bellied newt (after 4 months missing) in his bedroom under a pile of clothes, completely rock solid.
 
It had travelled a good distance from the tank too. Also cant believe my mucky brother not finding it for so long!

 

[shandylawson]

Years ago my snowflake moray went missing. Looked everywhere, couldn't find him until a month later he turned up, curled up into a perfect disc, under a couch a dozen feet away. Poor guy.

 

[RobRocksFishTank]

At the first fish store I worked at, before I started doing the ordering, I received a couple dozen freshwater fiddler crabs. I set them up nice in a partially filled tank with some rocks for them to climb on. I did not know that they could climb the airline that was powering the filter. I opened up the next day to see fiddler crabs scurrying about on the floor. Luckily all were accounted for and survived.
 
Having worked at a number of fish stores, I've seen more than my fair share of dried up fish behind tanks and was very good at identifying them. I've also tracked down the occasional escapee. Fish that I knew we had and were not present in the morning. It's amazing how much dust and dirt a fish can get covered in, be out of water for who knows how long, and still survive.

 

[Animal Lover 2000]

when i was really small we had some sort of fully aquatic frog and they would keep getting out of their tank and we would find them around, they looked like cardboard