missing cardinal

[NickT]

i saw a thread a while back where some one was talking about one of there cardinals disappearing from the tank without a trace.
this has happened to me now. i have guppies and cardinals in this tank and withing 2 hours one cardinal went missing without a trace. Ive looked on the floor around the tank incase he got adventurous and decided to try life on the other side of the galss..... Ive looked in the filter and moved some plants around looking for him.....then again maybe he went on vacation without leaving a note.

the tank is cycled and i just finished up testing (2nd time today) and the waters fine.
ammo 0
nitrIte0
nitrAte 10 (but i didn't test after losing the cardinal)
PH 7.4 (and may swing a bit at night but this was in the day time)

i figure he died and the corpse was eaten before i could see it, but i had to post this since i saw people saying they have had the same thing happen with there cardinals. i wonder if they are just ezer to pick apart than other fish. or if the shoal eats the corps like little piranha's?

all the others are in good shape and none look as if they are stressed or diseased so I'm confused as to what killed him. i know Ive been told that cardinals have a low success rate but i didn't think that it was like this. this is the first time Ive lost a fish within a week of getting it. and the worst part is i cant find the body to take back to the LFS or examine for any kind of disease.

 

[WILDER]

Look in the filter again as i once had a missing fish and looked in the filter and couldn't see it, changing a carbon sponge and he poped up in the filter, I don't no what type of filter you use so I don't no if shining a torch in there would help. remove everything from the tank all plants and ornaments, it helps you find them better.

 

[NickT]

wilder, i just got my tank to the point its resembling a slightly crappy amano tank. theres about 35-40+plants in there.... i think if hes not in the filter I'm just going to let him be fertilizer. the amano shrimp I'm picking up today should make short work of any corpse i didn't see. BTW he was about the size of a neon so i think he may have been eaten completely by my guppies. its no big deal if i don't find him, I'm sure there free of disease, this LFS quarantines most of there fish and all the cardinals look like there doing fine.

if any more go missing then ill worry.

unnamed cardinal

 

[sub.42]

djdotnet, I must be soooo lucky.

I have three cardinals, and they have been through the mill of late, and are now at full adult size. Given the circumstances, he may have succumed to the exploding neon syndrome for no apparent reason, and as you say, been scoffed by his ex tankmates.

Keep an eye on his mates, and test regularly. I've had Rams go missing without trace before, and at a Tenner a shot for 'A's', that hurts!

Hope it settles down.

Sub.

 

[NickT]

NO! its imploding neon syndrome!! get it right!

one of the little buggers is aggressive. i think maybe he killed the other one?

could this be the cause of death? i just saw him nipping at another cardinal for a good minute or two....

 

[SnowyzMom]

Given how fish can die overnight and be half eaten by morning it's quite possible for a fish to "disappear" that way I guess, but most of us keep a danged close eye on our fishies so it seems unlikely it could happen. Personally I am of the opinion that disappearing fish go into the same space warp that socks in the dryer go into!

That reminds me, the two ottocinclus that 'disappeared' in my 10 gallon have reappeared....they hide all the time and seem to enjoy stressing me out! And since ppl say they've had theirs disappear in a clear unplanted tank, what the hey?!?

Anyways I bought a small female guppy recently and she was fine, then a couple of days later she was gone and I have NOT found her since. Very puzzling as she was completely healthy and the search started the morning she wasn't there. I think there's a 7th dimension where missing socks and lost fish are happily coexisting.

 

[NickT]

there needs to be some scientific research done on fish tanks..... they need to look for a portal that sends fish into a parallel universe

 

[sunflower]

I think there's a 7th dimension where missing socks and lost fish are happily coexisting.

I'd have to agree. I lost a glolight tetra within half a day of getting them. Have had both filters apart and moved every single plant and ornament but I've never found it

 

[aloaring]

I've had a baby whale and two khulis go missing in my tank before Baby whale
and they have never returned from the dimension they wandered into. Either that or my fish are a bunch of maruading hounds that eat everything!!

and a few months ago i found a skeleton of a fish floating in my tank and i have no idea what it was as all the fish were accounted for. i think my fish must murder their mates and then bury them in the gravel so i never know!!

 

[ketyana]

I had about 3 pentazona barbs that used to disappear for weeks, then reappear again.

I know they have a habit of burying themselves head first into the gravel, but to hide for sooooo long in a 30litre biorb containing only three plants and a central filter, well thats an accompishment!!!

I guess they have the key to the 7th dimension and have worked out a way to return for the days when bloodworm or brine shrimp in on the menu!

I shall be turning on the tank light to full and carrying out an inquistion as to the whereabouts of the 7th dimension and how to get fish back from it for the benefit of all the rest of you poor fish losing people when they next return

 

[steevw]

Hiya all. S'funny, because I bought six cardinals two weeks ago, and one of those didn't make the first night either. Bit of a bummer, because it was the only one that my wife had named. He was the most adventurous out of all of them - he was happily swimming round the tank when the other five were huddling in a corner.

My personal theory is that the other five didn't like him and beat him up later. He was the smallest out of all of them, and had chunks out of his tail ..

Either that or the Krib ate well that night

Having a similar problem with my otos - I bought four, and I can only ever find two at a time, or three if I'm lucky. I've just about worked out that there are four different sets of markings that I see, so there's probably four fish in there. Or maybe one of them has a grey left side and a black right side?

Cheers, Steev

 

[gwlee7]

And here I was thinking that I was the only person who experienced MFD (mysterious fish disapperance). I know good and darn well I have 6 peppered cories and for almost a week I can only count five . Do any of you guys watch the show "Stargate?"

Or, maybe the fish read the Hitchiker's triology book # 4 So Long and Thanks for All the Fish!!

Where did all the dolphins go anyway?

 

[black convict 0331]

steevw wat kind of filter do u have? if u hav a H.O.B then u should check the filter cuz i had an otto that luved it in their it took me weeks to figur out he was swimmind in threw the output not getting sucked in threw the input so check in the filter dont jus shine a light in take out the cartrige and look around .

 

[steevw]

I've got an in-tank filter jobbie - slats are too small for an oto to get in, although it's packed with snails.

Big news is that WE'VE GOT FOUR OTOS! My wife saw all four at once last night (first time ever, I think), and dragged me to the tank to prove it. Two of them are really similar-looking, almost mirror images, so we've been fooled for ages.

Thanks for the tip, though!