Every Single Time! :(

Hello.

I go on holiday quite frequently with my family, But never for more than a week. I feed my fish a few large meals before I leave and a large meal when I get back. There is plenty of plant life and algae for them to snack on if they get hungry.

But each and every time I get back, my youngest guppy is gone without a trace. Doesn't matter if it's a 2 day trip or 8 days, the youngest always vanishes.

Why?

I'm not overfeeding before I go, I'm not underfeeding either (plenty of people have left for longer trips than I have). It's not a water quality issue as my tank parameters havent changes when I fast it when I get back.

They don't jump out as my tank has a lid covering all holes.

They could be eaten... But where do the bones go? A week isn't enough time for bone decomposition.. Why is it always one singular youngest guppy? Why only in my main tank?

Because my guppies no longer give birth, each time I've vanishes it is an older guppy than before, and the most recent one to go was just under hand a year old so it's a bit devastating.

This has happened three times in a row and I need answers. Maybe it's a survival instinct to kill and eat young in a food shortage? Maybe I have a singular violent adult? Maybe I'm missing some important factor here... I don't know.

If any of you know anything, please tell me! I can't lose another to ignorance of the cause of this

Thanks in advance.

-Mary

 

Is it just guppies in the tank?

 

Was originally two adult female guppies and 4 female fry. Now one adult guppy and one adolescent fry (one adult died of disease, three fry vanished)

So yeah. I did have rcs in there once

 

That's quite weird, the other fish will eat a dead one & the bones of a guppie would be so small & fine I doubt you'd see them, is there anything in the tank they could be getting stuck in or under?

 

Here is a ground floor picture of my tank (please ignore the algae I stupidly forgot to turn the light off before I was gone)

There are a few rocks and plants, none of which could really cause any harm..

Then there are two ornaments I got for free. One is the colluseum thing you can see in the background, but that lies flat on the gravel and wouldn't cause harm. The other is a coral-like structure at the front of the image and I guess a guppy could get stuck in there?! I took a close up picture of that coral thing; the holes all connect in a hollow centre of the ornament and each hole is about 2cm in diameter.

 

Have you taken the coral ornament out & had a look inside?

 

I'll do that now, though it won't explain why they only disappear when I am on holiday or why it's always the youngest guppy..

 

Agreed, that's why I said it's weird.

 

Strange, that's super weird.
I once lost a Peacock Gudgeon whilst on vacation, and to this day I wonder where it went.

 

It's the filter.

I just did a tank search and found my poor guppy stuck to the back of the filter in a hole I didn't know was there.

Before I could get them off, They wriggled and slid into the filter.

There was a whirring crunching wet sound.

Took me half an hour to get into the filter after turning it off. There was indeed a very mashed and dead guppy.

I'm talking to my dad tonight about getting a new filter.

Thanks for your help and sorry for the late reply. I'm still pretty traumatised.

 

Oh poor you (& poor fish), that's a horrible thing to have happen but at least you know now & can make sure it doesn't happen to any more of your fish in future

 

Sorry for your loss Mary

 

Whilst I'm here, got any reccomendations for a fairly cheap yet reliable filter?

 

Darn, that's horrible! Sorry for your loss

 

Depends on the size & capacity of your tank Mary, what are the dimensions?

 

Thanks for your kind words though

Guess this is something to learn and grow from; never get second hand filters and always check thoroughly for potential hazards (I knew there were holes but didn't realise they led directly to the motor propeller)

And at least I caught it before all my fish "vanished" I bet that's also where 10+ of my fry went; which i presumed eaten too.

Well this explains a lot really...

 

Oh yes sorry, I forgot!

It's a 10g (or more accurately, 40l) with a water surface area of 27 x 40cm

A canister filter type is preferable as I don't have the holes in the lid for a hob. So something with about 200l/h and considerable filter media space should do it.

 

Sponge filter? How big of a tank is it? I’d also suggest aquaclears, I like them alot

 

I've heard so many good things about AquaClear! I don't know of any that would work with my tank requirements though

 

Sorry for your loss.

We have this on our 10 gallon Marineland Bio-Wheel Penguin Power Filter

All I use are Marineland filters. I have a 37 gallon guppy aquarium with a 350 GPH canister and a 350 GPH HOB. Never had an issue with guppies getting stuck. But you could put a pre-filter over the intake.