Apisto mysteries

[CatoeSc]

Mystery 1: Had what I believed to be 2 male Cacatouides and 1 female Cacatouides. These 3 fish vanished without a trace. No sign of them in the tank or filter. Even moved everything in the tank around to find remains... Nothing! Poof... Like they were never there. To make matters worse, I tragically killed an angel when I inadvertently dropped a rock on it while searching!

Mystery 2: after some time passed, I bought 2 new pairs of Apistos. 1 pair of rednecks and one pair of panduros. Tonight, I found one of the rednecks dead, but not just dead... Brutally dead. 2 big hunks of filet and an eye missing! It had to have been the panduro male. He's a good bit larger and has a bigger mouth. The only other thing it could be is the last remaining angel, but that doesn't make sense. I'm a little P.O.d here. These little guys are pricey. Isn't this generally the kind of things that happen with their bigger cousins?

 

[Spokesman101]

I cant find my wag tail platty i swear it looks like he was stolen

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Disappearing fish usually happens when you have some good bottom feeders or they jumped out. How big is your tank? What filter are you running? What are your water parameters? How long has it been running. What are other tank mates? What does the decor look like? I would hold off on adding anything until you find the problem, fish don't usually just die off like that. Hope you can figure it out and I'm sure we can help you

 

[Oohitsae]

Are you sure your first set didn't jump? This weekend when I moved one of my tanks around to shampoo the carpets, I found an old decayed rosy barb under the stand. I knew that 1 had went missing a year ago, but never figured out what happened to it.

As for the 2nd mystery, whatever has the largest mouth is probably the cause, or maybe I should say, a large enough mouth to be able to do that to your poor apisto.

Strange things happen often in aquariums, it sucks, but something you have to deal with eventually sadly. I once came home to 3 of juvenile my GBR's dead in my 30. Everyone else was alive and active, no water parameter problems, no weird cloud of water, nothing. But all 3 GBR's were dead in the corner.

 

[bettaowner]

I agree with communitycichlid about the apistos jumping out. That's the only way I can imagine something like an apisto vanishing without a trace.

 

[Spokesman101]

I have 4 rams with the plattys but the rams were never aggressive them in fact one of them hangs out with the rams and the ither was a loner, i have a ten gallon with 4 rams 3 loaches and 3 otocynclous or how ever its spelled

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

I have 4 rams with the plattys but the rams were never aggressive them in fact one of them hangs out with the rams and the ither was a loner, i have a ten gallon with 4 rams 3 loaches and 3 otocynclous or how ever its spelled

That's a lot for a ten and even 20. I would assume either the rams were steessing him or water quality got him then you loaches ate him. What filter are you running?

 

[Spokesman101]

That's a lot for a ten and even 20. I would assume either the rams were steessing him or water quality got him then you loaches ate him. What filter are you running?

I am running a tetra 15-20 gallon filter, i didnt know loaches eat dead fish?

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

Loaches eat anything on the bottom. What type of loaches are they?

 

[Spokesman101]

Black kuhli loach they are about 3 inches long

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

They will clean out a dead fish in a few hours. That's typically what happens when bottom feeders are involved. You should really look into a tank upgrade.

 

[Spokesman101]

They will clean out a dead fish in a few hours. That's typically what happens when bottom feeders are involved. You should really look into a tank upgrade.

Thanks a tons man i will remember this

 

[CatoeSc]

Disappearing fish usually happens when you have some good bottom feeders or they jumped out. How big is your tank? What filter are you running? What are your water parameters? How long has it been running. What are other tank mates? What does the decor look like? I would hold off on adding anything until you find the problem, fish don't usually just die off like that. Hope you can figure it out and I'm sure we can help you

Tank is a 40g breeder
Ph is about 7.4
Ammonia/nitrite are 0
Nitrate falls between 20 and 40
Bottom feeders are 2 juvenile clown loaches (list the 3rd some time ago).
Filter is a Marineland c-360
It's a planted tank. Was thick at the time of mystery 1. Not as thick now.
Only other tank mates are 1 young angel, some danios and mollys. I have several otos and some SAEs, too.

 

[dragonfisher33]

if the fish isn't jumping out of the tank or getting stuck somewhere in the crevice or filter, then the most logical answer would be your fish ate the missing fish. i've seen my stocking dwindling down but never able to find the carcass of the missing fish. i have a canister filter without much decoration. the only logical answer would be my other fish ate them. it doesn't have to be bottom dwellers, any fish will eat the dead fish.

 

[CatoeSc]

Are you sure your first set didn't jump? This weekend when I moved one of my tanks around to shampoo the carpets, I found an old decayed rosy barb under the stand. I knew that 1 had went missing a year ago, but never figured out what happened to it.

As for the 2nd mystery, whatever has the largest mouth is probably the cause, or maybe I should say, a large enough mouth to be able to do that to your poor apisto.

Strange things happen often in aquariums, it sucks, but something you have to deal with eventually sadly. I once came home to 3 of juvenile my GBR's dead in my 30. Everyone else was alive and active, no water parameter problems, no weird cloud of water, nothing. But all 3 GBR's were dead in the corner.

I guess it's possible they jumped, but all at the same time? I generally have a tight glass cover in place, but at the time I was having filter trouble. I pulled the canister and put on a spate HOB while the canister was out. At that time, the plastic strip at the back of the tank was off. I checked everywhere and couldn't find any of them.

I fed live food Sunday hoping to induce spawning.

 

[TheCommunityCichlid]

He likely died and then was cleaned up by the clown loaches. They will get way to big for a 40 breeder.

 

[Freakgecko91]

FYI, through my experiences with panduro have shown them to have a lot of attitude and are highly territorial towards other apistos. It probably is the culprit for the viejita.

 

[CatoeSc]

He likely died and then was cleaned up by the clown loaches. They will get way to big for a 40 breeder.

Yeah, the clown loaches are temporary residents. I bought them with the intention of retiming them. They are still pretty small, but I'm already planning to get them out of there in favor of a small school of corys.

 

[CatoeSc]

FYI, through my experiences with panduro have shown them to have a lot of attitude and are highly territorial towards other apistos. It probably is the culprit for the viejita.

Do you keep/breed Apistos? I am trying to learn more about this little group of fish and find very few detailed resources. Any recommendations?

 

[Freakgecko91]

I've kept them, but with little success, as my tank setups are not favorable for apistos, I tend to do south american cichlid community (peaceful cichlid species though) and it seems apistos never seem to do well with larger cichlids IME