The Mystery Of Disappearing Fish

[tartanruby]

Hi All,

new to the site - but i am a bit confused at the moment:

we have a 2 foot tanks - so that's about 10 gallons right?

We had: 1 red honey gourami and 6 neon teras - we had kept the stock low as we have recently changed from gravel to sand gradually and been maintaining the tank at that level until we were happy the change was ok and the tank was happy/healthy.

Anyway - last week we added 5 tiger barbs and 5 rummy nose tetras and all appeared well.

we lost one tiger barb within a couple of days but wrote that off to stress on the fish of moving to a new tank etc.

a couple of days ago we noticed one neon tetra was missing, but could not find any sign of him, and then after being away overnight came back on sunday and one more tetra gone - no sign. we figured that being so small they rot pretty quickly in the heat and the other fish will have nibbled away.

Anyway this morning the red honey gourami is gone - not even a red scale to be found anywhere, and in comparison to the others he was a big guy.

he looked fine last night - no signs of lethargy, hiding, flicking or anything like that - we are worried that the new fish are eating the old ones? Is it possible that he died and they managed to finish him off over night? or worse that they have just eaten him alive?

We have noticed the faintest sign of white spot this morning so we are treating that - but no other signs - fish seem fine, no fin rot - no tails appeared to have been nipped or anything.

We do a 10% water change about once a week to fortnightly.

Any help or advice apprecaited

 

[WILDER]

Your tank was overstocked with adding the new fish.
What are your water stats in ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and ph.
How long did you climatise the new fish for.
What was the ph of the store to your tank.

Rummy nose tetra and tigar barbs need larger tanks of 20 gallons.
Check the filter inside to make sure there not there.
Remove all ornaments and look for the fish or dead bodies.
Check around the floor area of the tank to make sure they havent jumped out.
Do you have any pets.

 

[Hawkins]

I had an endler dissappear for a few days! then his brother went missing and didnt return

oh and today i had a 2" firemouth cichlid go missing for half an hour. he/she was hiding under the filter though was scared cause i was moving some stuff around ready for new gravel

 

[malakye]

If you cant find it in the tank I would take a guess at your tiger barbs eating the missing fish. I had a dozen of those in my 6ft tank when I had that and they ate their way through about a dozen neons before we realised what was happening. Barbs got rehomed asap after that.

 

[Spanner]

Got to agree its the barbs. I had to same about 15 neons, 2 glass cats and I lost count of the shrimp turned out it was my betta he wont live with anything so he got moved and is in solitary now in his very own 35 litre and the antisocial devil has never been happier.

Saying that though I took the ornaments out to wash could not find my small plec anywhere so I came to the conclusion that he had somehow gone the way of the others (after 20 minutes of searching), I took the ornament (partly seen in my picture) rinsed it and placed it in the sink to soak when I came back to collect it there he was swimming around in the sink and he didnt want to leave.

 

[tartanruby]

Thanks for the replies guys - looks like they have died - possibly from adding the others too quickly and then they have been eaten - suspiciously one of our neon teras is looking really chubby at the minute - but if he's munched the bl**dy gourami - serves him right - i'd have a big belly too!!

Thanks guys i'll have a look and keep an eye on them.

Any advice on what to do about the barbs - we have four of them at the minute - are they better in a bigger group or do i just keep an eye on them? Also don't want to add any others if they will get eaten!

we miss big red!!!

 

[WILDER]

See if the lfs will change them for more suitable fish for your tank size.
Always research fish before you buy them.
make sure that you know there adult size.
And make sure they are compatiable with the fish you keep.