Missing fish. What happened possibilities? - Aquarium Advice

litebrite · 04-13-2008, 04:27 PM

I had a 3" Angle fish in a tank with lots of live rock. 2 medium red stripe cleaner shrimp and 8 tiny hermit crabs and 2 small damsel fish.

A few days ago my very aggressive and much larger angle fish went missing. The angle was a bit large to just go missing. Thinking it might have gotten stuck under a rock I removed every piece if live rock 3 days later.

NO FISH. The tank has just water, nothing can hide. I checked the floor around the tank and inside the tank stand. The tank had a glass cover but I checked the floor anyway. NO FISH.

If the fish died could 2 cleaner shirim and 8 hermit crabs eat the whole fish in 3 days including the bones?

My only other possibility was that my fish was fishnapped. Any ideas? Thanks.

**roka64** · 04-13-2008, 09:25 PM

I would say yes, your clean up crew can be very efficient. Do you have and other pets in the house? In what order did you add the fish?

Kurt_Nelson · 04-13-2008, 10:33 PM

Do you have an overflow? I'm guessing you checked there if you have one, but I've seen other posts here that have found their fish there.

litebrite · 04-13-2008, 10:52 PM

Just live rock, a hang on back wisper 200gph filter and a power head. No overflow. I expected to find bones on the bottom. This tank had no sand. No pets. The only logical concludition is that everything feasted on a dead fish and the bones leaving nothing. The tank was established for a while, everyone was doing well. The angel fish ate normally just the night before and in the morning it was gone. I thought a rock might have fell over on it and the clean up crew worked overtime that night. But no bones?? I expected to find bones. What I found was a clean glass bottom. There was about 200 lbs of live rock, the odds of someone stealing it is slim. They would need to take out all the rock to catch the fish. I took everything out of the tank yesterday to upgrade to my new 150 gallon.

So now there is no rocks, no sand, no angel fish and no bones on the glass bottom. Strange.

As of now I can only think the shrimp and crabs ate the bones leaving no trace. Hoping someone else could explain.

Kurt_Nelson · 04-14-2008, 12:16 AM

I have to agree with you that it's strange. I mean, a clean up crew can be pretty efficient, but I'd expect a little of something to be left behind. A piece of fin, bones... something. Only thing I can think of is that it's somewhere farther from your tank than where you searched. I imagine it could flip/flop a good distance. Down a heat vent? (Hmmm... I hope not.)

Jimbo7 · 04-21-2008, 01:07 AM

I had similiar problems, a large copperband and a blue tang went missing from my tank never to be seen again. I searched high and low but never found them. For awhile we suspected a mantis shrimp but after about a week with a red flashlight we ruled that out. Actually today i found some unidentified white bone looking things where my gobies house used to be, we think it was a gang hit by the clowns and they made the goby bury the evidence. But in all seriousness after awhile i had to accept that weird things happen, there was no logical explination for it. Sorry about your loss but good luck with the new tank!

04-13-2008, 04:27 PM	#1 (permalink)
litebrite Aquarium Advice Regular Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 70	Missing fish. What happened possibilities? I had a 3" Angle fish in a tank with lots of live rock. 2 medium red stripe cleaner shrimp and 8 tiny hermit crabs and 2 small damsel fish. A few days ago my very aggressive and much larger angle fish went missing. The angle was a bit large to just go missing. Thinking it might have gotten stuck under a rock I removed every piece if live rock 3 days later. NO FISH. The tank has just water, nothing can hide. I checked the floor around the tank and inside the tank stand. The tank had a glass cover but I checked the floor anyway. NO FISH. If the fish died could 2 cleaner shirim and 8 hermit crabs eat the whole fish in 3 days including the bones? My only other possibility was that my fish was fishnapped. Any ideas? Thanks.

04-13-2008, 09:25 PM	#2 (permalink)
roka64 Aquarium Advice Addict Community Moderator Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 9,633 Images: 12	I would say yes, your clean up crew can be very efficient. Do you have and other pets in the house? In what order did you add the fish? __________________ Uh-oh, I just overloaded my Bioload! Vote for AA Good reading about: Nitrogen Cycle Fishless Cycling Need more help? Articles Acronym List --Scott

04-21-2008, 01:07 AM	#6 (permalink)
Jimbo7 Aquarium Advice Regular Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Chicago, Il Posts: 80	I had similiar problems, a large copperband and a blue tang went missing from my tank never to be seen again. I searched high and low but never found them. For awhile we suspected a mantis shrimp but after about a week with a red flashlight we ruled that out. Actually today i found some unidentified white bone looking things where my gobies house used to be, we think it was a gang hit by the clowns and they made the goby bury the evidence. But in all seriousness after awhile i had to accept that weird things happen, there was no logical explination for it. Sorry about your loss but good luck with the new tank! __________________ 90 Gallon Reef Tank 55 Gallon Seahorse Tank Frag_Tank

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04-13-2008, 10:33 PM	#3 (permalink)
Kurt_Nelson Aquarium Advice Addict Community Mentor Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: WA Posts: 2,014 Images: 28	Do you have an overflow? I'm guessing you checked there if you have one, but I've seen other posts here that have found their fish there.

04-13-2008, 10:52 PM	#4 (permalink)
litebrite Aquarium Advice Regular Join Date: Mar 2006 Posts: 70	Just live rock, a hang on back wisper 200gph filter and a power head. No overflow. I expected to find bones on the bottom. This tank had no sand. No pets. The only logical concludition is that everything feasted on a dead fish and the bones leaving nothing. The tank was established for a while, everyone was doing well. The angel fish ate normally just the night before and in the morning it was gone. I thought a rock might have fell over on it and the clean up crew worked overtime that night. But no bones?? I expected to find bones. What I found was a clean glass bottom. There was about 200 lbs of live rock, the odds of someone stealing it is slim. They would need to take out all the rock to catch the fish. I took everything out of the tank yesterday to upgrade to my new 150 gallon. So now there is no rocks, no sand, no angel fish and no bones on the glass bottom. Strange. As of now I can only think the shrimp and crabs ate the bones leaving no trace. Hoping someone else could explain.

04-14-2008, 12:16 AM	#5 (permalink)
Kurt_Nelson Aquarium Advice Addict Community Mentor Join Date: Aug 2006 Location: WA Posts: 2,014 Images: 28	I have to agree with you that it's strange. I mean, a clean up crew can be pretty efficient, but I'd expect a little of something to be left behind. A piece of fin, bones... something. Only thing I can think of is that it's somewhere farther from your tank than where you searched. I imagine it could flip/flop a good distance. Down a heat vent? (Hmmm... I hope not.)