Disapearing Harliqin Rasboras

[goldenboy]

hi everyone, approx a month ago i purchased 12 harliqin rasboras from my lfs after spending a month doing a fishless cycle.
with in a few days i was down to eleven, after a visual inspection with no joy decided to check the filters no sign of him in there, may be my weekly vac & water change would discover him, the tank is a 98ltr wall aquarium measuring 1980 x 600 x 150 with foam biological filters at each end with power heads.
the water stats are ph 7.6 ammonia 0.0 nitrite 0.0 nitrate 20 ppm.
within a week of the first disapperance i noticed 1 swiming with all the signs of having SBD knowing a slow death normally follows he was humanely disposed of, within a few days i noticed another with the same symptoms & decided to check on him in a few hours, unfortunatley he has totaly disappeared.
after a month i am now down to 8 rasboras from the original 12 of which 2 have been disposed of & 2 are MIA.
the 8 remaning all look happy & healthy.
as a newbie this leaves me with a few questions.
where could they be im 98% sure there not buried in the substrate which is sand as i think i would have found them when doing my weekly vac & water change, is it possible they could have swam through one of the power head outlets in there condition SBD i must have 2 rooting fish in the tank some where what would be the side effects of this ?if anyones got any theories please let me know im all ears

 

[cowboy507]

no idea where they could be, maybe under some decorations, really could be anywhere. you arent the first to lose a fish.
but dead fish are bad for a tank. they will pollute the water with toxins and make the water cloudy.

 

[joshjames]

if your fish died then the others may have eaten it
looks like your water stats are fine
are you sure it is fully cycled 1 month isnt usually enough time to get the water stable

 

[goldenboy]

if your fish died then the others may have eaten it
looks like your water stats are fine
are you sure it is fully cycled 1 month isnt usually enough time to get the water stable

thanks for the quick reply i also thought it cycled on the quick side, i used an api test master kit to check results which i could post if required the ammonia took about 10 days to go from 5ppm to 0 in 12 hrs which sounds ok. the nitrite according to my results only took 4 days to return to 0 in 12 hrs which i know is ultra fast.
i check the water stats weekly when i do a 50% water change, stats remain as follows ph 7.6 ammonia 0.0 nitrite 0.0 nitrate 20ppm. the tank is only ocupied with the harliqins do you think they could have eaten the dead fish ?

 

[Harlequins]

I thought i'd lost a harlequin few weeks back,had a good hunt and found the dozy fish had swam into an ornament which had a hollow middle,anyway lifted up the ornament and out it swam non the worse for his hiding place!!

Just wondering if any of yours are hollow?

 

[waterdrop]

Harlequins are also quite good jumpers. We've lost one that way. Fish that jump can, of course, get quite far away from the tank... I learned that the hard way years ago as a kid!

~~waterdrop~~

 

[goldenboy]

I thought i'd lost a harlequin few weeks back,had a good hunt and found the dozy fish had swam into an ornament which had a hollow middle,anyway lifted up the ornament and out it swam non the worse for his hiding place!!

Just wondering if any of yours are hollow?

no hollow ornaments just bogwood & rocks.

 

[goldenboy]

Harlequins are also quite good jumpers. We've lost one that way. Fish that jump can, of course, get quite far away from the tank... I learned that the hard way years ago as a kid!

~~waterdrop~~

thanks for the reply waterdrop but the tank has a lid & the last one to vanish was in a bad way suspected SBD.
IM TOTALLY BAFFLED

 

[waterdrop]

We have a lid too but he jumped out of the tiny space where a hose was going through. Yours does sound like something different however.