hotjez

Okay, i need some help here.....

in my 37g tank I have 2 big angels, 3 small angels, 4 tetras, 2 gouramis, 2 platies, 1 small corycat, 2 guppies and as of yersterday 1 swordtail and 1 pictus cat.
two nights ago, i noticed the pictus did not come out if his 'ship' to eat. I got a flashlight, and did catch a glimpse of him moving inside.

last night, when I fed them, I didnt see him at all, but didnt have a flashlight handy to check inside the ship. this morning, I looked more thoroughly...and saw a gourami inside the ship (note...no one would go in there with pictus inside!) and even removed the ship, shook it out and peered inside it, out back in the grass (I was creeped out by the thought he was dead inside). NOTHING came out and nothing inside.

when I went back to the tank the sword was floating (guess his corpus had been lodged in the ship...). the sword had been chewed. but still...no pictus. not even a bone or fin! I cant figure it out, he was about 5 inches long!!!! help!

capekate

OMG that is terrible!! How to loose a fish that size?? could he be buried in the gravel some how? Or like Flbettacouple says... did the fish aliens get it? Seriously tho.. its a shame.. eventually im sure you will find it. But it must be driving you crazy!

hotjez

I am bummed. I plan to vac the gravel tonight. the only thing possible it seems, is what you said, that he has buried himself in the gravel. But do they even do that? it is so freakin weird. I know all about missing fish syndrome...and funny thing is that the pictus is often to blame...famous for swallowing neon tetras whole etc. but for him to go missing?

I havent done a water change since I saw him 2 nights ago, so I know i didnt accidently 'suck him out' and the tank is fully covered. I am really bothered by this. and why did the freakin swordtail die??

Sabi

Hey, i know how this feels!! I've no idea what a pictus is, but i bought a weather loach today, after sorting him and seeing that everythings settled i left him. coming back after a while, i looked for him. i looked every where possible, no matter how hard, and still could'nt fins him! I went into a panic thinking maybe he jumped out while i was moving things around the tank, and looked all over for him.... I just coulnt find him!! In the end i took out everything,filter,deco stuff,moved the heater and when i lifted that plastic u place under the gravel he was thereunderneath!!. so checkout the gravel he could be there!!! :

arfon

i've the same problem with my clown loach. I've looked every where but cant spot him. Ive too many rocks/plants etc for him to hide so I'm not going to bother looking too hard for him. let us know how you get on.

Stradius011

That's terrible. That always happens to me with my otos. They would always hide and scare me to death.

COBettaCouple

LOL.. how'd you know i'd mention the fish aliens?

I hope you find him in the gravel though. Maybe the swordtail got on the wrong side of him before he went into hiding..

hotjez

i have an end to the drama, but now new questions arise

as i mentioned, I had removed the pirate ship....and left it out while I was at work. little pictus must have been buried in the gravel under his favorite locale, and after a few hours post removal of the ship, he surfaced...floated up through the gravel i suppose, because i found his very badly eaten corpus right where the ship had been. so that is the bad news. but at least i found him, i guess

but this makes me concerned. the very healthy pictus and swordtail, dead on the same day. in general, i have had little loss of life since i set up the tank. I lost no fish during the cycle, thanks to help from many of you...but since then, I had got 3 tiny albino cory cats (2 of the 3 acted lethargic for a few days about a week after i put them in...then 2 died), but the other has been fine for weeks since. also, when i got 2 sowrdtails, one died within a week, the other last 3 more weeks, died today

now...here is what i see...that little cory sitting in the bottom, not looking happy. of course my dead pictus catfish and swordtail, and now 1 big angel was sitting on the bottom. both big angels have white flaky on the fins, and the fins look rotted or chewed. for weeks now I have seen NO amm, no nitrite, and I keep the nitrates around 10. today when i tested, 0 amm, 0.25 nitrite (weird in a cycled tank...but mayeb from the dead dudes in for a day) and the nitrates were about 15. I just did a 20% water change. added prime and aqu salt.

should i treat the whole tank for ich no one else but the angels have any fleck, and the angels only have it on the fins.

COBettaCouple

we're sorry he turned up that way. i'm not sure what killed them, unless it was one of those toxin pockets that sometimes form in/under aquarium decorations. did you ever use algae wafers in that tank?

hotjez

i havent heard of toxin pockets before. what are algae wafers?

any suggestion on the white speckle ion the two angel fins? also th fins are a little ragged. i thought it was ich, but it is really only on the fins

COBettaCouple

sometimes a patch of ammonia or nitrates will build up under a piece of decoration. i've read of it happening to some of our members.

algae wafers are those thin green discs they sell for bottom feeders.

do you have a pic you can post of the angel? it could determine the difference between fin rot and nipped fins. it sounds like fin rot.

i'd recommend against the salt since you have catfish in there. salt is especially hard on them.