A Mystery.........

[TreesSZ]

In a dusty little art room the resides a small tropical fish tank. Eleven little fish gamble and frolic, happy and bright they go about thier daily business. Unfortunately an atmosphere of disquiet recently descended upon the content little community. Things started dissapearing........ First of all 'tubby' a content yet greedy little Glow light tetra vanished from the tank without trace. Then a fliter shrimp after only being in the tank for one day also vanished. I was subsequently made aware of thier ninja like abilities by a pupil, but after sifting through the entire tank with a fine tooth comb, no trace of the little fella. (found the remains of tubby though) Any ideas?

 

[Tolak]

A question..... What size tank, how many of what type of fish, and what are the results of any water tests?

 

[TreesSZ]

A question..... What size tank, how many of what type of fish, and what are the results of any water tests?

Small tank 42 litre. 2 albino cory 2 glow lights, 3 neon, 2 red robin gourami, 2 peacock goby. Water in good condition (nitratate a little high nitrite non existant), well planted, fluval 104 filter carbon changed every 6 weeks, airstone, sand on floor. The shrimp was about 2.5-3 inches. Any help??

 

[jayjay]

are peacock gobies brackish water or am i just confusing them with something else?

 

[Tolak]

Busy little tank, the corys may have chowed on the remains of the shrimp.

 

[Wonderboy]

I just want to say, "that was a pretty good story.... had me on the edge of my seat"

~ Wonderboy!

 

[TreesSZ]

could the shrimp have croaked and been eaten in less than 2 days? can they jump out of the tank? do they have remarkable powers of disguise??? sama: :saddam: If anyone knows anything about them I'd love to know. Apparently it was a 'filter shrimp' but I assume this is a generic term.

Also how do I encourage my gobies to mate? they are definately a mating couple. I dont think they are brackish, My LFS guy is an absolute stickler for details like that and gets very upset if the water samples I bring him arent up to his exacting standards.

 

[dwarfgourami]

Can't imagine it would take long for a dead shrimp to dissolve; small fish seem to do it in no time at all. On the other hand, unless your tank is tightly covered, shrimps are certainly well capable of finding their way out (but sadly not back in).

And you are right, peacock gobies are not brackish. They are not actually gobies at all, but a sleeper goby species (tateurndina ocellicauda).

Wouldn't say the stocking in your tank is ideal; it is on the heavy side and rather small numbers of fish that ought to be in larger groups; but if your water stats are fine, that is not necessarily causing these deaths.

If you want your gobies to mate, you will need plenty of small caves, like pvc pipes, feed them on nutritious food, and be prepared to remove the female if the male gets aggressive with her. Or alternatively, remove the male and the eggs as soon as they are laid. You will need another tank to raise the fry.

 

[jayjay]

oh lol i remember what peacock gobies are now lol sorry.

my lfs has some in atm i confused them with dragon gobies for some reason

 

[TreesSZ]

The gobies only seem to eat bloodworm and ignore flake, they spit it out if they take it in by accident. is there anything else they might like?

 

[TreesSZ]

got into work this morning and found one of the gobie dead, I think this puts pay to the breeding program. Had him for ages too!