Vanishing fish! Please help!

[DaveAndLiz]

I recently counted the fish in my tank to find that I was missing a Neon Tetra and a Black Neon Tetra. I searched everywhere in the tank and checked the filter but there is no sign of my missing fish.

I have a 60 litre tank with:

3x Leopard Danio
3x Zebra Danio
6x Neon Tetra (now 5!)
5x Black Neon (now 4!)
2x Bronze Catfish
1x Golden Loach
1x Siamese fighter

We are quite new to fish keeping and are very confused by where our Tetras have gone! Anyone got any ideas?

We are also having a bit of a snail problem and the control solution we bought doesn't seem to do anything. Can someone please recommend a good way of getting rid of them!

Any help would be very much appreciated!

 

[Fruitbat]

DaveAndLiz....

When a small fish like a Neon Tetra or Black Tetra sees fit to 'expire' it is not unusual that you can't find them because their tankmates often 'recycle' (read...eat) much of the corpse. Chances are that those two fish have gone to meet their maker and if you ever find any remnants of them it will simply be a few fishy bones.

As for snails...unfortunately the fish you have in your tank don't have a taste for escargot....at least not while still in the shell. If you're not too squeamish you can simply crush the shells and allow the fish to dine on the hidden treasure within. If you are squeamish then you can try the old 'lettuce trick'. At night, before you turn out the lights, place a piece of lettuce (works best if you boil it a bit beforehand) on the tank bottom. In the morning you can simply collect this delicate morsel (with the attached snails) and discard it in an appropriate container.

 

[Devilishturtles]

http://www.justbajan.com/pets/fish/articles/rid_snails/

Try this website for snail info. In addition to the lettuce, you could also use a cucumber. I also thought that betta's ate snails, but you already have one of those.

And I agree with fruitbat about your tetras. Something so small ususally either gets eaten ar deteriorates kinda fast. HTH!

 

[DaveAndLiz]

Thanks for the advice, I'll definitley try the lettuce/cucumber thing to get rid of the snails. I'm considering also getting a Clown Loach or two.

As for the case of the missing fish, I guess they just passed on and we didn't notice at first.

Thanks for the help.

 

[Endgame319]

Clown loaches will quickly outgrow your tank, they can grow up to a foot long and like being in groups. If you want a snail eater try yoyo loaches or dojos or skunks.

 

[Allivymar]

*nods and agrees with whats been said here*

I think we all have had the mystery missing fish. Sometimes its due to them dying and the tankmates feasting as Fruitbat said. Sometimes they manage to get out of the tank, and are eaten by other pets, or in the case of small fish shrivel up so much when they die they are very hard to find. My guess is they poor guys passed away, and the snails finished the remains.

The snails, ugh. I feel your pain LOL I hate em, although I actually have a few in one of my tanks. Unfortunately your are going to have to get rid of them manually; your tank is close to being overcrowded already and you have no room for more fish. Your tank is the equivalent of a 15g US give or take a few ounces.

 

[Menagerie]

I don’t have anything to add, except:

[center:14a21acc68] Welcome to Aquarium Advice, Dave and Liz!!! [/center:14a21acc68]