Where did my fish go?

I was cleaning the tank today and… two of my gudgeons are gone. I have no idea what happened. No remains. The two remaining girls didn’t eat them (I don’t think), the missing ones were both massive compared to the remaining ones and they’re bellies are normal size.

The sponge on the HOB was a bit off, they may have gone exploring but I checked the filter and nothing. The lid is completely secure and they definitely didn’t jump out.

So three things may have happened: (1) they were exploring a new hole in the dragon stone, got stuck, presumably died and I can’t see them.
(2) One of our nerites died yesterday, the body leaked enough ammonia to kill them, but the two smaller ones were unhurt (???). The remaining nerites cleaned up the bodies.
(3) I bought two teleporting fish by accident.

So now what? I’m not really interested in spending 30 more dollars of my unemployed self’s money on fish that will disappear again. Maybe I’ll try a different species this time?

PSA: dead nerite smell is worse than dead body smell. Dear god.

 

Hmmmm...i have read they are known jumpers given the opportunity. I just recently pulled everything out of 2 tanks to double check for any bodies, didn't find any, but i had cause to do so. Were all of them female? If you had any males, they can definitely hide very well and deep into caves if there are eggs. Flashlight is your friend for that.

 

Hmmmm...i have read they are known jumpers given the opportunity. I just recently pulled everything out of 2 tanks to double check for any bodies, didn't find any, but i had cause to do so. Were all of them female? If you had any males, they can definitely hide very well and deep into caves if there are eggs. Flashlight is your friend for that.

One of the missing ones is male, the other is female, but I pulled all the rocks out and looked; nothing. They weren’t exhibiting any breeding behavior either. I’m not super upset at this point, just confused.

I know that they can jump, but the entire top of the tank is covered in glass and fine wire. I’m also over there all the time, I would’ve probably smelled it (I think?).

Edit: one of the remaining females isn’t looking great either. Laying on a rock only moving the pectoral fins, swaying with the current. Might just be tired, but I don’t think so.

 

Weird. I've got one gudgen that I thought for sure died somewhere in the tank, after 2 weeks of not seeing him he shows up with great colors and a full belly. I tried to pay attention to where he might go and hide but missed him and he's gone again. Been 5 days. Who knows.

 

They are good hiders. A friend of mine told me the first time he saw peacock gudgeons, the tank owner said "remember, for every one that you see, there are 2-3 more hiding"

 

Someone recently had this exact same problem with a betta & did find it until practically taking the filter apart. Maybe you can search in the filter farther.

 

I’ll take apart the filter engine and have a peek in there. They’re either dead or hiding, and I guess they’re isn’t anything I can do.

They’re target trained, so maybe they’ll come out for munchies tonight.