Mysterious Disappearances

[Kinky Boots]

Sort of following on from a previous post of mine, I've experienced another incident of a mysterious disappearance.

When I put the tank-light off last night, all 4 of my mollies were in perfect health, active, feeding and generally looking well. Yet when I woke up this morning and put the light back on, one of them had completely vanished.

There is absolutely no sign of it anywhere in the tank. I've moved the plants and also shifted some of the media at the bottom - nothing.

My tank is a BiOrb, so I don't think it could have got into the filter (although in truth I haven't checked this as yet) as there are no real places a fish could sneak through.

Its not the first time this has happened - I can think of two other occasions when this has happened. So where has it gone? Has anyone else experienced magical mystery fishies???

I'm stumped, perplexed and bamboozled!!!! Can anyone fill in the blanks and stop me going barking mad?

Cheers

KB.

 

[pendragon]

A disappearing fish is frustrating, as we all know. When I first set up my tank, I had gravel, water and six red-eye tetras - nothing else. One morning I woke up to find five. I searched all over, inside the tank and all around, and couldn't find it. Had to go to work, and when I came home that night there were suddenly six again. I still swear it's true.

But let's come back to reality. Fish can't just disappear. It must be somewhere. It's either in the tank hiding someplace, or in the filter, or it's somehow gotten out of the tank. When you come right down to it, there's just nowhere else it could be. Does your tank have an open top? Could it have jumped out? Have you looked everywhere around the tank? Did you look on the floor? Have a dog or cat that could've "got it" if it jumped out? Are you absolutely sure you didn't miscount, and it's still there someplace? I suspect that, as unlikely as it seems and as much as I hate to admit it, this is somehow what happened to me.

Hope that helps.

pendragon!

 

[PETsMARTchick]

What else do you have in the tank? Maybe something ate it.

 

[boozybears]

Hi Kinky Boots! I know how stressful a disappearing fish is! A month ago I was over 30 minutes late for work because one of my platies was missing. I searched everywhere.... in the filter, on the floor all around the tank, phyically moved all the plants and ornaments but she was no where! My poor husband got so many frantic calls from me that morning. That night I was watching tv and suddenly... there she was. Still have no idea where she was hiding ..... but was very happy to have her back!

Good luck with your molly!

Val

 

[Kinky Boots]

Well, it'd not return by this morning so I'm guessing is moved on to the great aquarium in the sky....

In answer to the questions above, I'd read in "You and Your Fish" (or some such publication) that fish could jump out of the water, but I have a lid on my tank, so that rules that one out.

Along with the mollies (3 others), I also have 3 Phantom Tetra and a Neon. I used to have 5 Phantoms, but one did the disappearing trick and the other passed away. I have noticed that now that there's only three of them, they tend to chase each other round a lot more. I think it might be one particular fish that does the chasing...should I introduce a couple more perhaps? And maybe a couple more Neons to balance things up?

I definately didn't miscount either - I've experienced 'hiding' fish as well, so I doubley double check....

...so it looks like one or more of the others have scoffed the missing one. As I say, that has happened 4 or 5 times since the beginning of November when I first introduced fish into the tank. Two of the incidents happened when I was on hols, so they may have just died and were eaten by the others, but the others definately just vanished....

have I got a meanie Tetra perhaps??

Cheers

KB.

 

[daydreams_uk]

the same day that one of my black mollies had fry...my gold/white molly disappeared. i spent ages searching in and around the tank(she was too big to get sucked into the filter) i looked absolutely everywhere for her but to no avail..i went to bed that night completely baffled.
Got up the next morning and she was there swimming around with the other fishes. I dont know what had happened to her...if only fish could talk lol

 

[Fordaz]

I have a BiOrb... I'd imagine it's quite impossible for a fish to be sucked into the filter, the inlet holes aren't big enough.

The thing with the BiOrb is that it's a constantly flowing tank... the bubble tube creates and upward flow in the middle, and a downward flow along the outer edges by the glass.

Check in the ceramic media at the bottom of your tank near the outer edges, there's lots of places a fish can get stuck down there... especially a dead one (which, I'm afraid to say, is most likely the case).

It's important that you find the fish, because a rotting fish can contaminate the tank.

 

[diVer]

I know what that's like, in fact I'm going through it right now. I found out one of my otos was missing while cleaning the tank so I searched every square inch, nothing, area around the tank, nothing. I still havn't found it.

 

[Mustang5L5]

If you have snails in your tank, they will quickly dispose of any dead fish.

I've lost a few fish during the night from my tank. Only way i found out where they were going was when i woke up late at night and used a flashlight to peek in. One of the fish had passed and was COVERED in snails. It was gone the next morning.

I have about 200 snails in my planted tank. They keep it spotless, dead fish as well

 

[Rory the cat]

I have 5 neons in my tank. Without fail one of the neons disappears every night at around 11pm and reappears in the morning.

I have no idea how he does it, or where he goes, but every night is the same. The rest carry on shoaling, but he goes off somewhere alone.

 

[fishlova]

maybe your fish jumped out of the tank if your tank at the top is open because one of my fish disappeared and i found it an hour later on the floor

 

[Xellos69]

when i was little my first betta fish disappeared.

he jumped out of the little fish bowl i put him in and turned into a crispy betta chip. not that i ate him, he was just really dried up.

 

[Dragonscales]

Do you own any other pets who can get inside the room your tank is in? Is the corners cut off on your cover? I had the same prob with an eel, I know it ain't just hiding in the tank coz I moved everybody out, took out the water, all plants and ornaments and then removed the substrate a bit at a time and he was nowhere to be seen. I am guessing that he must've snuck out of one of the corners of the tank and one of my very lucky cats got a midnight snack!

 

[Stryker]

Maybe it was beamed up!

 

[Dragonscales]

Maybe it was beamed up!

Nah, I confiscate their communicators at lights out lmao