Missing fish?!

[matttimms49]

Hey Ovas,

I noticed that 2 of my CPD's are missing which is very odd. I try to keep daily fish counts and I noticed on Saturday morning that there were only 5 compared to 7, normally a couple can be kinda shy so I thought nothing of it. I had to wait a day to do a water change as I was out of Ottawa for the day.

On Sunday I did my water change and pulled out the big plastic plants and larger rocks to see if I could find any dead bodies or if they were being super shy and found nothing. I later fed the tank some mini blood worms, which normalyl brings out all the fish and still nothing.

I wonder if I may have accidentally stirred any dead bodies in to the gravel when doing the water change or if the dwarf corys ate them.


I've checked in the filter and I've checked the water parameters and they seem stable, I might take the water to a store tonight to  see if my tests were off

I have no idea how long it takes a 1inch fish to fully decompose but I have no idea what to do. haha. Too me it's strange that its two of the CPD's, 1 maybe but two is a little odd.

It sucks but can this happen? Am I unlucky or a bad fish keeper?

Cheers,
Matt

[transporter8367]

Last week I saw my pair of Kribs devouring a dead zebra danio.

[Gilbotron]

I wouldn't worry about it.  I lose fish all the time, but my tanks are jungles.  In fact I have/had a 6" banjo cat I haven't been able to find for a month now.  Sometimes the fish are hiding and reappear later, sometimes they're dead and eaten.  All depends on how thick the decorations/plants/caves are in your tank where fish can hide.

Most fish will eat other dead fish, and with little fish like CPD's it won't take long for them to be completely gone.  Snails are probably the most efficient at devouring carcasses, so if you are concerned about decomposing fish ruining your water quality, you can keep snails to clean up for you, especially if you have a lot of decorations/plants.  With my big jungle tanks with lots of caves, I always have hordes of snails to make sure dead fish don't foul the water.  Trumpet snails are great - during the day they live in the substrate and eat nasty stuff under the gravel, then come out at night to devour anything above grade.  Great cleanup crew that are hardly ever seen!

[matttimms49]

I ending up finding one dead CPD. I have no idea how it alluded me for so many days, I guess when ever I moved stuff around and did the water change it must have floated to different areas  I feel bad but at least I found the dead fish. I got my water tested and it was stable so hopefully I caught it before it did any ammonia damage.

The other lost fish re-appeared as well! again I have no idea how I missed it over a few days but  at least I can forget about searching for missing fish for a while!

Thanks for the advice as always,

cheers,
Matt