Disappearing Fish

[Crazybob]

okay, so yesterday i woke up to a dead pleco, and my blue rams having ich on them. i turned up the heat in the water to 82-84F range, and did about a 35% wc. i also bought some ich treatment, took out the carbon filter and treated the water. this morning when i went to check on the little guys, one of the rams was lying dead and the other is completely missing from the tank! in its place i found these two tiny soft metal plates, which i think may have contributed to the initial problem, or my ram became them. has anyone else had a disappearing fish? would my other fish have eaten it in an 8 hour period?

specs of my tank are:
70g fw
1 red tailed shark
5 bloodfin tetras
6 green tiger barbs
ammonia - 0
nitrite - 0
nitrate - 0
ph - 7.6
current temp - 78 (im going to go buy a new heater as mine seems to be having a problem heating the water as of late [its about 15 yrs old])
i have an emperor 400 filter

thanks for your time, your help here is much more appreciated than a lfs
crazybob 8)

 

[Davo86]

How often do you do water changes? surely there should be some nitrate present? also is there a chance that the temperature is fluctuating due to the old heater? this would be an explanation for the stressed fish, As for the missing ram, IMO the RTB shark would have been the only one capable but is probably unlikely, are you sure its still not in the tank?

 

[Crazybob]

i do weekly water changes of about 30%. im about to head to the fish store to buy a new heater.l i just did another test for nitrate and it was around 5ppm. the pieces of metal that i found were lead (did a taste test of it lol). i tried uploading a pic of it, but i dont know if itll work. also, i just got home from my dads house and one of my barbs were dead . since this all started my rtb shark has been hiding in his home and hasnt come out, tho he is swimming around in it so i know hes not dead.

anyway, thanks for the help davo

 

[Spooky76]

Check all your stats again to start with.
What treatment are you using for ich ? Some knock out your good bactera. Temp fluctuations will stress the fish and that in itself can be problematic.

Scaleless fish like loaches and plecs etc, are not as resistant to the ich treatments and some state to give a half dose if you have those fish in your tank.

Sounds like all your fish are stressed imo. Somethings bothering them, so its either poor water really or the treatment.

I have used King British Ws3 formula and its always sorted out the ich in days, although you do lose fish sometimes.

How bad is it on the Rams ?

I doubt the ram has gone....probably been eaten a bit, check again.

Are those metal things from the bottom of your plants ?