# Anyone ever had a fish magically disappear?



## Boldstone4 (Oct 23, 2012)

I have, well had, a trio of geophagus jurupari...and today after doing a total clean up in my 55 one is totally missing. I searched through all the decor and all, but still no fish. My guess is it died and the other fish ate it before I could find it.

Ever happened to you?


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## irondan (Nov 22, 2007)

the same thing has happened to me recently. i lost a ram and an angel. the thing is, there is nothing in the tank that could have eaten them. my friend thinks it may be a snake as i live in a very remote area.


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

do you have overflows?


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## Boldstone4 (Oct 23, 2012)

Yea. Nothing in their would eat it, and I've checked all the intake valves and even the floor...the fish is no where to be found.


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## metricliman (Sep 3, 2012)

Maybe in the sump?


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## BC in SK (Aug 11, 2012)

irondan said:


> there is nothing in the tank that could have eaten them.





Boldstone4 said:


> Nothing in their would eat it


I'd be curious to know what you would consider as "nothing" that wouldn't or couldn't eat a dead fish? IME, ANY young cichlid is very inclined to eat dead fish, not to mention some non-cichlids that might be quite inclined to do so as well. Mature cichlids sometimes too, though usually they are not as inclined to do so as much as a young growing cichlid.

I once introduced 15 jewels and 5 convicts, all around 4 months old. Even though many of the jewels were larger then the cons, the jewels were simply too young to be introduced into this tank, as I found out over the next few weeks. I watched everyday as the entire tank of young fish (mostly young mbuna) ripped apart a dead jewel ...everybody participated including the young jewels, until they were all completetly eliminated. I had a similar thing, years ago, in a grow up tank with young Astatotilapia boyetii......all 10 were killed over the course of a couple weeks, then ripped apart and devoured. The other A. bloyettii participated just as eagerly as any other young cichlid in the tank. Of course there is no mystery where these fish went as I seen it with my own eyes.......never owned a young cichlid that wouldn't eat dead fish!


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## cichlid-gal (Apr 27, 2012)

Yes...darnedest thing ever. One morning one of my plecos, a pretty big boy, is missing from one of my 75G tanks. We looked everywhere. We removed all the decor, we checked behind everything, we looked on the floor all around the tank. No sign of him.

The kicker...My granddaughter puts her backpack beside one of our tanks when she comes in the house. She spent the night this particular evening so the backpack sat there all night. After tearing the tank and floor apart I looked at the backpack and thought well, should I check it? Apparently somehow the pleco came out of the tank and landed in her backpack. We were not sure if he was dead or not when we found him but we put him in the hospital tank. He lost all his slime coat but recovered fully and is perfectly healthy today. I have no idea what that journey must have been like for him but I bet it was a doozy.


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## Boldstone4 (Oct 23, 2012)

Wow, that pleco's got a testimony lol. Excuse my typo "their (there)."

My best guess is it got eaten, and eaten quickly. I'm not sure how it died though...it was a healthy fish. The tank is shared with 30 of my gold JD grow outs.


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## Dexter. (Oct 23, 2012)

What kind of stand is it? Closed bottom? I had a tank on my dresser for a while with 5 cichlids in it. One was gone one day, couldn't find it for a couple hours. Gave up, figured they ate him. Over a month later I was rearranging my room and when I moved the dresser...about 3 feet to the left of where the tank sat at the very front of the dresser there it was. Laying there dried up like a Herrs chip. I felt terrible. I realize there was nothing I could do but it was still sad lol. The weirdest part is, the plastic cover off the back of the glass top was cut fairly close to everything it went around (heater and filter) so he had to have jumped in just the right spot. Crazy fish.


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## jcabage (May 29, 2012)

We bought 3 small (~.75") BNP's a few months back to go in one of our grow out tanks. A couple of days later I could only seem to find two of the new fish. After I searched the entire tank, I decided that somehow our 3 week old fry had eaten him. Literally a month later I was doing a filter change when adding more fry and noticed something flopping around under the sponge of our AC 50. I don't know how he got up the intake, past the impeller, or lived under a sponge for weeks, but he is back in the tank safe and happy now. He is still a little smaller than the other two, but he's growing now and healthy


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## mxg5299 (Oct 9, 2012)

I own a sun/eclipse catfish, and I've had 2 tiger barbs and a firemouth cichlid disappear. He's probably the culprit.


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## Boldstone4 (Oct 23, 2012)

Haha. Idk, my tank is a regular 55G.


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## CICHLID MASTER7 (Nov 17, 2012)

My teeny weeny pleco disappeared.I'm almost positive he/she is not dead.


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## CICHLID MASTER7 (Nov 17, 2012)

CICHLID MASTER7 said:


> My teeny weeny pleco disappeared.I'm almost positive he/she is not dead.


I think he/she is behind my heater.


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## Boldstone4 (Oct 23, 2012)

Lol, well mine is gone...never found or seen again


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## Mr.Dempsey (Jan 4, 2012)

You sure it did not jump out and one of you pets didn't eat it? I've had tiger barbs jump out and my dog ate them, i'm sure a cat would do the same thing.


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## Boldstone4 (Oct 23, 2012)

Na, that didn't happen


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## scarhbar (Feb 17, 2011)

Did you look under the substrate? Maybe a sandsifting fish got scared and hid in the substrate? It's a theory 

I've had fish randomly disappear too though! I had an EXPENSIVE Apisto in with 5 Discus, and after a couple weeks he was gone over night! My I don't think my 5 little guys would snap on an Apisto like that, but maybe


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