Missing Goldfish.

[Karen LeQ]

Hello. New to the group and have a puzzle to solve.

I am running three freshwater tanks. The 100 gal was purchased 2nd hand and came with a Pleco, Bala Shark, 3 comet goldfish and 3 fancy goldfish. I do a fish count every day on all three of my tanks.

Last night 1 of the 3 fancy goldfish was no-where to be found. I fully removed and examined the HOB filter. Also pulled out the very large, hollow stacked rock display. Checked it with thoroughly with a flashlight, swished some water into it and there is no way it's lodged in there. I can't imagine that if it died the tankmates would have scavenged the entire 2 inch fish and not left a single trace in over just a couple of hours.

IF it somehow managed to escape the tank I'm not able to find it. How long would it take for me to be able to detect the smell?

Thanks for any suggestions.

 

[Aiken Drum]

I can easily imagine a 2 inch fish being consumed in a couple of hours, especially if the other fish are adults.

But, do you have a cat maybe?

 

[Karen LeQ]

Yes I do have a cat but he would be more inclined to play with it for hours prior to eating it.
I have a home made cover on my tank but it is a heavy plastic 1/2 inch grid covered with a thin plastic board on top of that. No large holes to get in and out of. The fish would have had to jump 2 inches up and out of the water to get into the HOB filter. ALL of the other fish would have had to do a major feeding to dispose of it fully. It's such a weird situation that it's driving me nuts.