Cory Catfish Disappeared

[Voxcharm]

Hey,

New to this forum. This morning instead of there being five of my corydoras aeneus (3 albino and 2 bronze) there was only two albino. Now there seems to be an awful lot online about this occurrence of disappearing fish especially with corys and I'm aware that sometimes you just have to write it off as a mystery but this has really bothered me, and quite upset me.

First thing I did was totally turn the tank 'upside down' checked everywhere. Even in sand. I hate doing this because it stresses out all the others. There is literally no sign.

As to jumping out there is also no sign around tank. It's a hooded tank with only like a couple of tiny holes that a fish could possibly ever jump through. I have also never witnessed any type of jumping behaviour from them.

My only conclusion is a very unlikely one, that is the air stone (which the corys love swimming right through) pushed one up out of the water and it fell out the TINY hole that allows the air stone wire in through. And then that my dog may have sadly eaten it. It's possible I guess but so unlikely.

Has anyone experienced anything similar. I'm guessing if the fish died in the tank, with it being an armoured catfish there would be body parts left in the tank. I can't find anything.

My tank is 50 litres (12 gallons??) I'm fairly new to corys but they've been in there getting on 2 months. (Fish less cycle completed before stocking.)

Parameters
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0
Nitrate 5
Ph a steady somewhere between 7.4-7.6 (little higher than ideal for corys but they have previously been totally fine and healthy in behaviour pretty sure it's to do with the sand substrate.)
Kh: not sure exactly but its a soft water area.

It's really bothered me. Has anyone ever had a fish being pushed into the air by an air stone. Maybe a cory swimming, as they do, straight upwards from the bubbler and out of the water??

 

[the_lock_man]

I've never had that happen at all, but I have had fish disappear on a number of occasions. Not much one can say, really, I think it's more likely to be dead in the tank somewhere, rather than in the dog's stomach.

 

[BerryAttack]

its most likely hiding, or dead in one of your decorations.. or jumped out of the tank. 
one time one of my cories (no idea how it did this) jumped into my hang on filter... i searched the tank and then around the tank... few days later (needed to change filter) found it alive in the filter ha... 
i could also be that the cory was eaten by another fish?

 

[Ny82]

Do you have snails? When my fish disappeared I found the remains months later. She had died after giving birth, the snails had dragged the body under the sand and ate it. Could it be eaten by another fish like berryattack said?

 

[Livewire88]

Well your dog could have eaten it, but only likely if your tank was open top. 
 
I lost a gold ram once from my open top tank and my dog was sat in front of the tank looking pleased with himself!! I saw the ram one minute went to make a sandwich came back and it was gone, I searched the whole tank (moved everything out) so it seems the dog was the culprit. 
 
More than likely your fish is even hiding or has sadly died. 

 

[Voxcharm]

Thanks for these two replies. It's a well planted tank and I have even (much to my displeasure) uprooted my beautiful java ferns. Checked deep inside the shells. The only place it could possibly be is totally buried under the sand, but I've even tried to root through most of that!

Re filter its not one of those with a big open intake. It's just a grille that a cory could no way fit through.

Re jumping out, its possible but the only hole it could get out of is around 3cm by 2cm. It's the gap for feeding the airpump through. It would have to have excellent aim!

Re being eaten I know this is totally possible, its a 50 litre with (previously ) 5 corys and 3 mollys. Verging on over stocked i know but ive not had any water problems, do a weekly at least 20% change, or teratorial/bullying issues with these guys. I would have expected in only a max of 15 hours corpse eating time to have found bones as corys have massive skulls and armoured spines I'm under the impression. Could 4 corys and 3 Molly's technically devour an entire corpse in 15 hours? Nothing looks bloated??

Where's Poirot when you need him. *joking but crying on the inside*
@Ny82 yes I do have a few pest pond snails in there. a snail would never kill a cory right? but if it died in the night then that's possible. Maybe tomorrow, after giving the others chance to recover from stress of today, ill really turn over all the sand. A decaying corpse can cause an ammonia spike/ dramatic ph change can it not? /

@livewire88 its quite possible my scavenger scruff dog wouldn't turn down a beached fish flapping around but as I said it would have to have amazing aim to get out the tiny hole in the hood.

 

[Ny82]

No they don't kill the fish but if the fish has already died then snails will dispose of the body. I have ramshorns and MTS. Yes it can cause a spike, keep an eye on stats and do water changes. Good luck with the search. 

 

[Voxcharm]

NB just took apart the filter and he's definitely not in there. A couple of bloody baby pond snails were though.
@Ny82 thanks, and noted, ill keep an extra obsessive eye on my levels and up my changes if I see any levels creeping up. If I don't find the body it'll be so creepy!

 

[Brodie Becker]

I had the same problem. 3rd. day in new tank, 20 gallons. 1 female betta, 1 black sckirted tetra, 2 zebra snails, 2 juvenile bristlenose plecos, and one other cory catfish.