I just got a ceylon puffer fish and put it in a tank with mollies, a violet goby, and nerite snails. I put it in the tank and watched it for a few minutes. All the fish seemed to ignore each other. After an hour I came back and couldn't find my puffer anywhere. I tried to coax it out with food, but it never showed so I torn the tank apart to look for it and found nothing. All my other fish and snails are accounted for and I couldn't find it on the floor, in either of the filters, of on the edges of the aquarium. I don't think they could have eaten the puffer that quickly. They were roughly the same size and puffers are supposed to be aggressive, so I don't see how they could have killed and eaten him so quickly.
Why Do Fish Disappear?
- Thread starter GAMZ
- Start date
If a fish dies, especially in the warm temperatures of a tropical tank, the body will decompose quite quickly, and all fish will eat dead ones.
It's not at all unusual to never find missing fish.
It's not at all unusual to never find missing fish.
I checked all the levels in my tank before I added the puffer and everything was perfect. Do you think that the puffer was too stressed and that caused him to die or the other fish attacked him? He looked a little banged up from the trip; his fins were torn at the ends and he looked a little dirty. He had what looked like mud on parts of his body. So maybe he was ill when he arrived?
Thats a possibility of course, puffers being sensitive fish, all academic now really.
But yes, fish can 'mysteriously' disappear in a tank, more often than not, as fluttermoth says, eaten by the other tank mates.
Shrimps and snails will also happily munch on a dead fish.
Sometimes when small fish die, they disappear into the the filter openings and all sorts of things like that.
Also when you have jumper fish like hatchetfish or endlers for example they will simply jump out of the tank if no lid on tank, so they disappear behind the cabinet or stand....
But yes, fish can 'mysteriously' disappear in a tank, more often than not, as fluttermoth says, eaten by the other tank mates.
Shrimps and snails will also happily munch on a dead fish.
Sometimes when small fish die, they disappear into the the filter openings and all sorts of things like that.
Also when you have jumper fish like hatchetfish or endlers for example they will simply jump out of the tank if no lid on tank, so they disappear behind the cabinet or stand....
Tongue_Flicker
Fish Herder
I had an angelfish disappear on me once. My tank had a cover, no other fish bigger than him, no snails or shrimps and there are no traces of bones. I was still using undergravel filter back then too. My mom made a sarcastic remark that maybe it went to heaven lol
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