The Puffer Forum

I had 4 male guppies in a 15 long last night that I fed before I went to bed. I didn't check on them this morning, but I did this afternoon and now there are none. Where did they go? Why did they go? How do I find them? Why do fish seemingly randomly disappear for me?

My first clown pleco did it.
One of my dwarves did it.
My ghost shrimp did it (though they reappeared 2 months later).
No traces. No skeltons, bodies. No funeral, cremations or sacrificial rituals. No fish fry. No rocket launch. Just vanished. Poof!

And just to add insult to injury, I tripped over a fish today. One of my Pictus went flying last night (or this morning apparently). I could only find one in the tank. Spent hours searching for the third. I was just about to rip the mountain apart when I noticed some movement in the smallest of holes. Sure enough it was there, I know because I caught a glimpse of silver when I was shone a flashlight into the crevice, nearer the bottom backside of the mountain. It managed to get itself out.

Do you have any pleco's in the tank? Plecos can eat dead fish quickly and leave nothing behind.

Do you have a cat...Cats can go fishing in your fish tank.

Are you sure they are not in the tank? I have two feeder guppies (their deformed and I did not have the heart to feed them to my turgidus) any way..I have sand in their tank and I often find them lying in the sand inside decor-I guess they are sleeping???

This is long since dead but there have been some new developments...

Apparently I had lost 4 guppies. While it's true that I lost them, it's safe to say that I have found them. I'm doing a complete rebuild of my setups and moved some wires and three dried bodies fell to the floor. There's a shriveled up thing that is the same colour as the other guppies but I haven't taken a close look at it yet.

Still missing some plecos and a DP.

Are you sure they're not being sucked up into your filter tubing?

any stray current causing them to jump like that?

I have never had a guppy jump...

Fish jump for many reasons--one of which J-P already mentioned. also, poor or big changes to water parameters. I kept losing DPs & found out they were getting sucked up into my filter, even with the strainer on the intake.

Fish jump for many reasons--one of which J-P already mentioned. Also, poor or big changes to water parameters. I kept losing DPs & found out they were getting sucked up into my filter, even with the strainer on the intake.

Arny wrote:Are you sure they're not being sucked up into your filter tubing?

100%.

J-P wrote:any stray current causing them to jump like that?

I have never had a guppy jump...

Hey JP! Been a while eh?
I don't remember. It was too long ago. I'm pretty sure I had one of my standby Aquaclear 30s on there. Other than that I think it was a pretty empty tank.

Pufferpunk wrote:Fish jump for many reasons--one of which J-P already mentioned. also, poor or big changes to water parameters. I kept losing DPs & found out they were getting sucked up into my filter, even with the strainer on the intake.

Don't I know it. I've siphoned at least one.

I just remembered posting about this when I saw them so I figured I'd jump on and bring some closure to an otherwise weird situation. And yes, they have been amongst the wires for over a year!