Dasquee

Hey guys,

Been a while since I was on here, but I have found myself in a rather strange situation. I used to have 4 bristlenose pleco's/catfish in my tank (5 foot) and they kept my tank quite clean, I'd give them algae wafers every now and then. Fast forward to about a month ago, I realized I'd only seen 2 of them for quite some time now.

I've checked everywhere I can think of, and they're definitely not in the tank or outside it, so I'm wondering if some of my other fish ate them? They weren't small, all four were about 2.5 inches long.

I've got 2 blue Gouramis, 1 clown loach, 2 small upside down catfish and the bristles.

I'm stumped, any ideas? I definitely didn't suck them up when changing water so that idea is out.

Thanks

10gallonmadness

What are your water parameters? Sometimes when a fish is sick or injured the other fish will attack it to kill it off. Maybe the could be hiding too. It's not uncommon for fish like plecos to hide for days maybe even weeks at a time. What is the size of your tank.

Aldric

are they male and female BN in your tank?
becouse I just learnt a lesson about my disapearing BN. one of mine had disapeared and after a few days I was very worried that he had got hurt or was ill or stuck somewhere so I moved everything in my tank looking for him and no matter what I moved I couldnt find him. but what I did find afterwards was a cluster of eggs!!! instead of being hurt or what ever he had been looking after a bunch of eggs layed by the female. male BN look after the eggs and will oftain not leavbe them for days on end as they gently swish their tails over the eggs to circulate water over them. so if you have female fish that might be one reason for the males to have gone missing suddenly

10gallonmadness

I don't have BN now. I've had them before though. I'm glad you found and some more. Looks like you might have a rising case of MTS on your hands .

Dasquee

50G tank, water conditions all normal. I haven't seen any of the fish eating any dead ones, that's part of why I'm stumped.
Pretty sure they've been gone for over a month now.

However, I do believe (from the size of the bristles) the two that are missing were male and the two that are left are female.

Aldric

then they could very well be looking after eggs/hatchlings/fry
thats what my male was doing becouse its strange that both males r missing but not the females.....

Dasquee

I still haven't found out what has happened. However.. I have noticed in the last few days my upside down catfish are really quite fat for fish that never eat when I feed them, as well as the two bristles I have left are VERY VERY cranky when it comes to feeding. My gouramis are easily 4 times the size of them but they chase each other away easily... Maybe they ate them?

Toddnbecka

I'm still scratching my head over the disappearance of 2 L-204 pleco's from a 29. There were also 8 Von Rio tetras that disappeared one by one, but I figured the polka-dot loaches accounted for that. I had stocked 5 polka-dot loaches and 5 pleco's originally, the 8 tetras came later. I would have expected to find bones from the pleco's at least, they have a larger skeleton than tetras.
If you have catfish or loaches they will clean up any corpses quite effectively IME.

Charlene

I had 3 baby albino BN's (4-5cm and sold to me by my LFS!) and one just simply disappeared and the other one I can account for as I found it's body (now have one left). They were in a 16L tank as they were too small to go in my main tank. I still to this day have no idea what happened to the one I can't account for. That wasn't the only time that I had fish just disappear on me!!

TedsTank

they are probably fine...SHAWNIE takes them at night...just had a day off too...and now missing fish again. That is why don't post pics....it is her "hit" list!!!!!!!...lol

Amanda

You usually never find a body from a fish unless they have JUST died. The bpdies will disintigrate rather quickly, and be picked at by other fish. I've lost many fish that I have never accounted a body for.

Dasquee

Well, it's quite a bit later since last and I have an update!

So far one of the mysterious bristles has shown up out of the blue, just was there one day a few weeks ago. The 4th is still missing. So odd, so so odd.

Aldric

im glad the one has shown up again, sounds like he is playing tricks on you.... lol

aquarist48

Hello Dasquee. I'm glad to hear that one of your Plecos has returned. Hopefully the other will too. I have not had good luck having more than 1 Pleco in a tank for some strange reason. I never found any remains.
Ken