Disappearing Rtbs

[SuckerLove86]

Hey all, I got home from work late last night only to find that my four inch RTBS is nowhere in sight... I knocked a bunch of plants out of the way, checked inside the filter, around the back of the tank in the area of the filter cutout in the hood, all along the substrate, the water line.... nothing. I have cats, but I have no reason to believe they could have gotten to him (i.e. no paw prints on the hood... kinda dusty). But even if he did jump out he would land behind the tank... an area unaccesible to even the cats... water stats are checking out... his tanksmates don't seem the least bit out of the ordinary (gouramis & danios). 40 u.s. gallons. Anyone have any idea what could have happened?

The only thing I have to go by is the bubble stone was pulled out of the water inexplicabley... ok, my cats may have done that.

Time for CSI: Aquarium.

 

[kat and james]

rtbs are quite good at jumping.. he could have jumped out (they do manage to get out of the tiniest holes (you wouldn't even believe some of the holes they get out of!! )) and once out of the tank fish tend to flop around quite a bit, he could easily have flopped his way to somewhere where the cats could have gotten to him.

i'm really sorry to hear of your loss though!!

 

[@ombomb]

Although my RTBS is bar far the biggest fish in the tank, I see it the least (other than one of my plecs). It sueezes itself into a tiny little cave and comes out to feed when it's hungry and then goes back in. Are you sure yours isn't hiding somewhere still? Don't be fooled, they can squeeze themselves in to the tiniest of holes.