Argh! Mysterious dissappearance.

[mwelin]

We added 2 new danios and 3 otos to our tank over a week ago and then this past Friday we went out of town.

We had a pet sitter in for the dogs and asked her to dump the premeasured pinch of food we left in a container next to the tank into the tank on Saturday evening but to otherwise leave the tank alone. I've no reason to expect she did anything more...she's very responsible and I would not have left her with the dogs if I wasn't SURE she could follow instructions. I did ask her to pull out the body of a fish *if* one died so it wouldn't foul the water but she didn't see any dead fish.

Anyway...we arrive home Sunday evening and one Oto and one Danio are MIA. I found the Oto's skull/spine when I was cleaning the tank last night. No sign at all of the danio.

Blah. WTH? There were no issues with any of the fish not getting along, we kept a very close eye on them all week and they were doing great. The danio was NOT the one who appeared to have injured his eye during the week...it was the normal looking one. And it was not the smallest Oto but the medium sized one. I tested the parameters and everything is just as it was last week though with a slight rise in nitrates.

I know we were warned on the Angels but we've spent so much time watching them and have never seen any sort of agression with any of the tank inhabitants. We've been watching even closer than normal since Sunday night (thanks to a snowday) and still there is no sign they're anything more than fine with everyone. Could it be one of the male gouramis? I have noticed one of them seems to be a bit "edgy". There is no bubble nest but he's getting more aggressive with the other male in the tank. Thoughts?

We've got two males and two females that have been OK for quite some time but it may be that they're growing up and we need to take one of the males back I suppose. Would they bother a danio or an Oto or are the angels still the prime suspects there?

 

[Wat2Go]

Can't answer your angel question, but we every so often have fish MIA. In my daughters ten gallon a platy actually went missing this week, absolutely no sign of it whatsoever. And in the 55 I sometimes find half eaten fish. I know our snails are good at cleaning up dead fish, don't know what else helps, but certainly danios and otos are small enough to be a quick meal!
Sorry.

L.

 

[nancie2k]

could it have jumped out?

 

[Rbishop]

I would guess the Angels or Gourami if there is no indications of a jumper. But as for the oto...fragile fish most times and needs a very well established tank.

 

[kyle079]

I had this problem once after i added 6 swordtails to my 29 gal. Within a week i was down to 3 and now have only 2. The two that i have remaining ive had for 5 months now. there was no way they could of jumped out as i have a piece of acrylic over the top of my tank with ports only big enough for my intake/out take of my filter and a hinged section for maintance and feeding. I think my pictus cat ate them but i was never able to find any parts remaining. It was a very odd phenomenon that i still cant figure out.

 

[mwelin]

Thanks folks, it does seem now that it was most likely the angels. One of them is markedly more aggressive and he seems to have decided that the danios are tasty snacks. He was pestering one last night a bit but it found a hiding spot where it was safe. When I woke up this AM he was dead and partially consumed too.

I'm going to see if we can take the 3 remaining danios to the LFS so they don't end up the same way. What a bummer.