The Puffer Forum

goldielocke76 wrote:why would dragonfly larva cause your fish to disappear? That one went over my head, and I was just curious about it

They are pretty mean predators. They eat all they can stuff into their mouth. I loved to catch all kind of water larvae when I was small, and dragonfly larvae was one of them.

Troender wrote:

goldielocke76 wrote:why would dragonfly larva cause your fish to disappear? That one went over my head, and I was just curious about it

They are pretty mean predators. They eat all they can stuff into their mouth. I loved to catch all kind of water larvae when I was small, and dragonfly larvae was one of them.

I just googled them and they are disgusting looking...lol the things we do, pick up and catch as kids. We used to catch huge dragonflies at my grandparents house in Alabama. I mean HUGE. A good 4-5 inches long. When we found out that they bit though, we stopped xD

PP didn't have one in her tank though. I wonder what happened to all those poor lil fishies = /

They make casings out of the substrate they are in, so would blend right in.

If the fish weren't in the filter, in the plants, in the substrate (carefully sifted through, but with big gravel pieces like that, it's unlikely), or otherwise ingested by another fish, then.... I still think someone or something would have had to take them out of the tank.

How much time from first fish to last did this take?

I noticed only one loach was left, about 2 months ago. When I didn't see the single one that was left & algae growing on the glass, I lifted up the centerpiece & shook it, to see if there were fish caught up in the roots, inside. Nobody was in the decor.

I'll take down the filter tonight & look it over, to see if there is any rotten flesh in there & move that decor to a big tank with lots of fish, to keep the bacteria stocked in it. That's the only thing in there, so I can get a better look at the empty tank.

PP sorry for your loss

I am interested to hear the results of the filter inspection.

+1

very odd, keep us updated

Took out the large piece of decor & shook it out. Found an oto & a single DP, both alive! Man, is that puffer shy.

missing 3 Vietnamese loaches:

That's a great start! Hopefully you can't find the rest as well!

Nope, they're not there.

Ah, well that's too bad. It's great that you were able to find 2 of the missing fish though.

*can for previous post.

i find that the dwarf puffers are EXTREMELY hard to see sometimes. my friend has a 55g corner tank and it has a whole pile of barbs , like 20, and 2 dwarf puffers. it is so hard to see them, they sit within the plants and peek out at you. i never thought barbs would be good tank mates with dp's but they get along quite well, both mind themselves