plant crab

Okay - add me to the club! Thursday I got five oto's for the 55 gal and I am so pleased with them. They are just so cute. And man, do they ever love cucumber!

Here's the problem: I'm down to four. We can't find the fifth one. Overnight one vanished. I did my research before I bought them and I know they can be difficult to acclimate. I didn't doubt that I would lose one or two. I was prepared for it. However, complete disapperence is a different story!

We vacuumed the gravel a few days later, I took the intake on my filter out and checked in there, picked up rocks, everything... We're so mystified as to where he is, at one point, my husband and I even doubted we had actually left the store with five! It's been four days since he disappeared and we've been doing periodic "oto counts", but we always come up with four.

My question (and its morbid, sorry): Has anyone had any experience with a completely missing fish? Any ideas on where he could be?

Sorry to say it, but unfortunately, my biggest fear is that he's stuck dead somewhere polluting my tank.

lisamorie

i would guess your other fish probably ate him? i have two baby gouramis, danios and tetras, and when one of my glofish died, the other fish were on him IMMEDIATELY! you wouldn't have believed it-- it was like watching piranas (sp). of course the glowfish is probably considerably smaller than your missing oto, but it honestly only took them about 2 minutes to completely devour the dead fish-- and yes, i do feed them! they ate him up before i could even get the net to scoop him out...

plant crab

oh my goodness! i would have never imagined they would do that, but those are pretty much the same fish i have in my tank! and this oto was very small, maybe three quarters of an inch, so probably the same size as your glofish. that is just crazy! well, i guess i don't have to worry about finding him! thanks, lisamorie!

lisamorie

i think i read somewhere that it's a natural thing for fish to do that, even herbivores, to keep the water from being fouled up?

good luck with the other otos! i'll be getting some soon for my 55 gallon tank, can't wait!

Tavel

I have never removed a dead fish from my aquariums, they always just disappear. When i say "I lost a fish the other day" I literally mean "lost". haha.

Barbrella

Have you taken the filter off, emptied it and looked inside the box?

That's where I found my MIA baby pleco.

plant crab

Actually, its funny that this post just got revived...

We finally went out and got a Python gravel vac a few weeks back and the cleaning power is incredible! (BTW, I can see underneath my UGF and there is barely any buildup of anything under there since I've been using the Python! Highly reccommend it.)

So anyway, there was this slate rock that was in the tank (previous owner donation) and I had checked/ cleaned underneath it a few times, but last weekend I decided to take it out altogether. (It's very heavy and I always worry I'm going to drop it when I move it around the tank.) Well, when I vacuumed in that spot with the Python, it pulled something up from the gravel and sent it through the tube to the sink. We "fished it out" (excuse the pun) of the sink and I'm 95% sure its the skeleton of the missing oto.

And yes, Barbrella, I did check the filter box, because I has the same thought!

Thanks for the help guys!

Butterfly

Glad you figured that out. Frequently when fish die the other fish will eat it if not found right away. Even herbivores need a little protein
Carol

oOOOo

Snails can be great scavengers too. We had a dead guppy wedged in a plant. We planned to get her next time we put our hands in the tank, but the big apple snail beat us to her. One minute she was in the plant, the next minute the plant is clean and the snail is sitting right there licking its ... whatever. Didn't see her get et, but the circumstances seem definitive.