hozzie

Erm.....

This morning my male guppie is absent, missing, awol.....

He was sharing with 3 juvenile gold barbs and 2 clown loaches and 2 lady guppies...

where oh where has he gone??

No corpse, no floating body parts, no smug looking tank mates....the lid was on and the cats dont look guilty....have removed all tank decorations and searched with a torch....

where is he??

alien abduction ??

*sob* he was pretty.

Mike19

hey, hozzie

i was at my local LFS today and the owner told me sometimes fish will disappear from the tank for example a fish dies, the surrounding fish will tear it apart and eat it.

hozzie

oh lovely....

no food for them today then, that'll teach em to eat my favourite fish....

wonder why that happened though he was fine and errr 'frisky' last night as his widows will testify. Perhaps they wanted to be single fishies again.....

water readings normal.

just 'one of those things' perhaps?

thanks mike

Mike19

what are the other fish with the guppy btw?

Matt

Mike she mentioned that in the first post of this topic.

-Matt

hozzie

Lol... I think I have the fish addiction, just bought another bigger tank !!

The 2 gold barbs i guess are big enough to eat poor guppy's body parts and the loaches seem to eat everything while grinning at the other fish. I bought them a hiding place which they sneer at, active funny fish.

Should have had fish not kids, far less hassle.....

My barbs...one has a red tummy and the other a white tummy....are they likely to be male and female as the red belly one is oh so attentive to the paler one? He dances for her....

Matt

Maybe. I am not sure. I hope it means they are going to breed soon

Breeding is such a good exeprience for people.

-Matt

hozzie

lol, i have 3 kids.... might not necessarily with you on that one :P but the fishies would be more fun!

krazykid933

Check the filter... It may sound strange but I had two fish and a shrimp living in my filter before.

Minnow

Hozzie, I hope you find out what happened to your guppy. It's always sad when we lose a fish.

You have two clown loaches in a 15 gallon tank? They grow to be a foot long, and they school. I see you have a 47g cycling, but clown loaches need 55 gallons, minimum.

Mike19

my bad, it was early in the morning, thanks matt.

hozzie

Thank you Minnow and Krazykid

I have realised NOW that the clown loaches grow enormous.... funnily enough this wasnt mentioned by the fish shop..hum!!.. I live in hope that by the time they grow I will have a big enough tank for them..... can you exchange husbands for tanks??

It would be really useful if fish shops put the adult size by the names plus any other info... so that idiots like me dont believe them when they send you home clutching your little tiny fish that grow into monsters. And yes if idiots like me read a bit more before buying fish. I searched for 'beginner community fish' and only afterwards when i researched the fish i had bought did i see the size

Thanks as well, I will check my filter, I miss my guppie, he was extraordinarily pretty.

Dozey

The LFS is the last place that you'll get any useful information on anything aquatic. Although the other day I was at my LFS and ask the two girls (about 16-years-old) who were working at the time a question and they both just looked at me with blank stares. Best advise I every got from the LFS.

soldieroffortune1974

hozzie

can you exchange husbands for tanks??
NO you can't,if you could I would probably be 1 of the husbands being exchanged

Most fish shops don't give information on size,compatibility,etc because they really don't expect them to live long in a home aquarium,and it's to the shops benefit when you go in and buy the fish that's not compatibile,sooner or later,you will be back to get more.That's what they expect..........the fish dies......you go buy more.....The average lifespan of a fish in a newbie's aquarium at home is less than a month (just my guess)

Dozey

they both just looked at me with blank stares. Best advise I every got from the LFS.

LOL..best advice ever from LFS

Minnow

It's okay, Hozzie. I was sold a pair of clown loaches to take care of the snail problem in my 30 gallon tank. They told us they only got 4 inches long. They lived probably half a year, and they died when they were only 3 inches long. I would recommend getting a larger tank as soon as you can, but they should be okay where they are for now. Just be super careful with water quality, mine were always coming down with something. One of them had anchor worms once, and the other had a really bad case of fin rot.

My PetCo, the only fish store close to my house, does have information on each fish, but the adult size is in fine print and hard to find. It's not always true, also. They also have a very breif, usually useless description of where they are from, not what they need.

soldieroffortune1974

It's not always true, also. They also have a very breif, usually useless description of where they are from, not what they need.

Just enough info to entice,and make them sound exotic;but not enough to make an informed decision

Minnow

Exactly. It does tell you if they are schooling fish, which is nice, but I guess that's just to sell you a whole bunch of fish instead of only one.

Mike19

although clown loaches grow large i was told that they grow very slow. and they are really expensive once they grow larger i saw a small one for around 9-13$ and a larger one for $250 and the supersized ones were like 400-600$ :s WoW lol.

hozzie

I live on an island 9 miles by 4; we only have one fish shop - so choice and info is rather limited. You nice people are the best info by far. Many thanks to everyone

All remaining fish are doing well and have lived for 7 weeks now so they are beating the odds it seems; that seems an appalling statistic for fish lifespan, makes me feel guilty for buying them tbh......

shame about the husband exchange though lol, fish are much prettier, far tidier and dont nag!!

hozzie

THE CASE IS CLOSED !

I have found the remains of my guppie in the filter today.... well his head and body at least... why did he decide to get in the filter I will never know, perhaps his wives drove him to it!

And thank you to all you nice people for your lovely comments; I live on an island 9 miles by 4; with one fish shop, not a lot of advice here.

Poor Horatio guppy, I knew him.... briefly

Minnow

I'm sorry your guppy died. If any of your other fish are small enough to get into the filter, you can put a sponge or a piece of filter media in the intake tube, it will prevent them from getting sucked up.

Good luck with the rest of your fish, keep us posted!

hozzie

All fishies doing well. Tank water is reading, 0, 0 and 10 so all is well. But having just seen an adult clown loach in my fish shop I am amazed at the size of him...huge and gorgeous!!

As I will move them to new bigger tank soon ( atm 0 ammonia, 0.25 nitrite and 20 nitrate) I presume I can get another male guppy ? the girlies are lonely.....

guppywhitecloud

i got some good advice from als the other day and i went to get a new fish and she siad i can only get this one because she wanted to test the water for me to get another one later lol

guppywhitecloud

hozzie

Are guppies stupid

I replaced the sadly dead male guppy, covered the water spout with mesh... and found the new guppy in the filter yesterday...how did he get in there? he must go over the top of the housing. The females sensibly dont do this, just the males.... hummmmmm

Luckily he was fine and non the worse for it but honestly !!

soldieroffortune1974

He was exploring.This is common for any male species,especially if he didn't want to ask for directions.He took a wrong turn.Give him a break.

hozzie

lmbo..... am going off males at the moment. My female gold barb and her 2 males moved tanks yesterday and this morning she is spawning while they chase her eating the eggs!! all that effort while the boys get a free breakfast .....tis ever thus!

:P

Helene

MrsM3197

Ya know...some things never change, huh? LOL!!!

hozzie

sorry Lucy, i wasnt aware that abbreviation was considered unacceptable...apologies....