cuteusagi

Hi all! I have been reading through your posts today because my husband and I noticed that our danio "head count" was only counting in at 5 instead of 6...and we have no idea where the missing danio could be...

We did our weekly water change last night (10-15%) and did move around some of our plants and a few rocks, as well as vacuuming the gravel. We checked our water changing hose/apparatus and he didn't get sucked in, nor is he in the filter. We took the hood off the tank this morning and had no luck finding him. We just added the rubber nose pleco on Friday, but he is very small (maybe about 1-1 1/4 inches long). Our largest fish is a Bolivian Ram, but I don't think anything in our tank would have purposefully eaten him.

The danio that is missing is the product of farm breeding and had a "crooked" spine and 1 pectoral fin that was small (like Nemo!) and that he didn't use a whole lot. However, he was a fine swimmer, stayed with the other danios (as much as ours stick together...they never really schooled...) and always ate heartily with the others. Other than his birth defects, he was a healthy danio.

We would like to try and find him, and if his is dead, we don't want to just leave his body in there to rot away (I'm sure its not good for the other fish, is it?) and we're just curious as to where he has gone. We are thinking that he must be somewhere in the gravel, and now its just a matter of finding him. Any ideas?

Thanks always for the help!

Chief_waterchanger

Probably died and was eatten by the other fish before you noticed it. Danio do not tend to hide away unnoticed for long at all, they're very active fish.

Biscato33

I think that most likely possibility is that the danio that is missing died overnight and once it died one of the other fish ate the body. Many fish tend to eat fish that have died right away.
I'm sorry for the loss.