Hi all,

I realize I have been posting to this forum a lot, but I need help solving this mystery.

I have a 75 gallon tank with a whole bunch of fish in it. I had a "school" of two rosey barbs. I realized that this was bad, so I purchased a rosey barb 2 weeks ago and added it to my tank. I was surprised to find that it was missing about two hours later. The next week I bought two new rosey barbs to add to my tank, hoping that they would actually stay alive. They are still alive, except one of my original rosey barbs has gone MIA.

I have two catfish, so perhaps they died and were eaten. This would be strange, because my fish seem fairly peaceful and my water parameters are fine. I have checked and the fish did not jump out of the tank. The other possibility is that one of the fish ate it, but this is strange, because I don't think any of my fish are big enough to catch and consume a rosey barb. I also think it is strange that in almost two years of having this tank, these are the only disappearances I've had.

The fish in my tank are:
2 red tinfoil barbs
1 gourami
7 danios
4 tiger barbs
3 albino barbs
5 bala sharks
3 rosey barbs
2 catfish
1 huge fancy pleco
1 tiny pleco

Also, what can I do to prevent future disappearances? Fish are expensive.

Hmmm... that's odd! I was going to suggest that maybe they died and were eaten by the cat fish or maybe they jumped out, but you've already explored those two options.

Do you have a heavily planted or decorated tank? Maybe being new to the tank, the new barb was shy and went into hiding. When you brought 2 more home, maybe one of your old ones felt intimidated and is hiding as well? (I'm sorry, that's all I can think of other than they've been eaten or jumped out).

I hope you find them alive and well and no more fish go missing on you!

Don't worry about posting a lot. I do it too. How else are you supposed to learn things if you don't do research and ask for advice right?!

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981

This may sound dumb, but I have thought fish were mia, dead and gone, only to see it swimming around with the group a day or two later. It must have had a hiding spot even I did not know about. Hopefully, that'll be the case here. If not, sometimes life's just a mystery!

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60g tall, all artificial plants, Rainbow tank; 55g for African Cichlids. 20g long for fry; 20g hex, 2 black Angels at my desk; 10g planted, with 50 Molly fry; 10 gal, 2x 13w cfl lightning, planted; 2g hex for "Buddy the Betta"; Wanting a 200g +, MTS getting bad.

When I was 10, I had 2 plecos and 5 ghost fish in a tank where all the other fish had died of ick. A month later they were gone. I checked all over the floor, the gravel, the decorations..no where to be found. Finally I took out every ornament (after thoroughly checking it) and slowly scooped out the gravel until the tank was empty. I found one live shrimp, but that was it. Another month or so later when I was reorganizing my room I found a lint ball under my dresser that had a pleco inside of it, the pleco had been tangled up in it all along. Never did find any semblance of the others, though.

My friend once had a shark/catfish (forget which) that had been missing for over a week. They thought he'd died. On the 9th day or so they found it a good 30 feet or so away from the tank on the floor of the laundry room in the basement, they picked it up to throw it out and noticed it was respiring. They put it in the tank and it was good as new.

Hope you've learned something from these stories

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30G planted aquarium with Aquaclear 50 and two Aquaclear 20s. 7 Cherry Barbs, 12 Cardinal Tetras, 1 Albino Bristlenose Pleco, 1 Golden Honey Gourami, and a handful of Ghost Shrimp.

I've had some MIA critters as well. Even after moving plant leaves around and lifting decorations I still couldn't find them. A few days later, I would see them swimming around again.... fish are pretty good at hiding, lol.

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20g Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981
36g Bow Front Heavily Planted http://www.aquariumforum.com/gallery...00&ppuser=8981