Disappearing Tetras

[derajer]

I have had my tank up and going for about 4 months now.

It is 29 FW Planted.

My surviving residents include:

2 African Dwarf Frogs
10 Ghost Shrimp (I think, hard to count, I threw in a dozen)
1 Red Tailed Shark
2 Siamese Algae Eaters
2 Weather Loaches
3 Clown Loaches (added a several days ago, never got ich for the record)
3 Upside Down Catfish
2 Serpae Tetras
3 Neon Tetras

PH 6.8
Ammonia 0
Nitrite 0


I have been losing every tetra I put in this tank, I have lost 4 rummy-nose, 13 Neons, and 3 Serpae tetras.

I never see any floating bodies, skeletons, or anything else to actually tell me what happened. Where could these guys be going? They just disappear in the night never to return again. It's only tetras , so far. This has been going on for about a month now. I'll put a school of tetras in, they'll adjust, brighten up, become active in the tank, then disappear one at a time never leaving a single trace.

 

[Lotus]

If you're sure those are African dwarf frogs and not African clawed frogs, I would suspect the upside-down catfish (even though I don't know how big it is).

 

[NoDeltaH2O]

In a planted well populated tank dead fish often quickly get consumed by their tank mates. I had a small yoyo loach disappear once and about 3 days later I saw a little piece of spine on the bottom, had to be his remains. If you nitrate readings are really low, than maybe feeding the fish a bit more will be okay. In that case, they may not completely consume a dead fish. But then again, why mess with a good thing. I really can't imagine that any of the fish you listed would have cannibalized the tetras if they were well fed, although I have never had any experience with weather or clown loaches or frogs. I do not even try to extract a lost dead fish anymore as it merely serves as a tasty treat for my scavengers, and is probably what they would prefer to eat given the choice between the two (flakes vs tetras). A large decaying fish though could really foul up the water, but a tetra wouldn't present a problem if the tank is healthy overall.

 

[derajer]

To clarify about my frogs they are definately ADFs, I am fairly new to the hobby but I have done a lot of research and I am confident in my abilities to recognize various species of fish, frogs, inverts, you name it. What I lack is the knowledge that only comes with time and experience. As for my Upside down catfish, all three are under 1 inch.

This brings me back to my original question, why would all of my tetras die whilst my other fish show no signs of bad health. I test my water regularly, I have plenty or plants and cover, my red tailed shark is an excellent indicator of water quality, as soon as his tail starts losing color I know I'm overdue for a water change, I have also heard that clown loaches are just about guaranteed to get ich any time you put them in a new tank and I've had mine for about a week and they have shown no signs of ich.

 

[derajer]

By the way, Lotus, are you are you a big Hitchikers guide fan or did you just find that quote to be fitting?

 

[f8fan]

Same thing happens to me with my danios. A couple weeks ago I bought 5 more zebra danios to add to the school, now there are only two remaining. I think since they are so small my African Butterfly Fish may be with culprit but who knows. They have just *poof* dissapeared...

 

[littlecobra1977]

well i have all my tanks filled with apple snails and any thing that lays on the bottom with out moveing is gone by morning, but i see you dont have any snails. i have 1 banjo catfish in one of the tanks and hes doing fine and dont seem to bother any one.
Shane

 

[Lotus]

Neons can be really poor quality. I stopped having them in my tanks, as I can never get healthy ones.

Yes, I like Hitchikers Guide.... listened to the radio plays, bought the radio plays on vinyl (back in the day), watched the TV series in the UK... etc. Yeah, read the books, too.

 

[nikon70]

from my experience it also depends on what type of filtration system you have in your tank, in my new years i had a multi stage filter in the tank and at night when they went to sleep they were getting sucked into the filter, could this not be the case?

good luck fish hunting- i still check my fish every morning, im hunting round the tank eagerly like a little school girl checking all the fish

 

[Valorie]

If your neons are dying naturally overnight, could be that your shrimp are a very happy cleanup crew. If you have 10 of them, I would think that they could make pretty quick work of a neon.

 

[derajer]

I've never seen my neon's sleeping anywhere near the bottom, so I doubt that the shrimp could get them, I suppose that is possible though. As for my filter I have a UGF and HOB that came with it, and I do have the guard on the end of the tube so there's no way they could be getting sucked in. I suppose they could get stuck there and then eaten by the ghost shrimp?

 

[twoluvcats]

also, dead neons don't look anything like they do when they are alive. They completley fade...and can easily blend in in a planted tank.

Most of the time when I've had neons die, i've just found the skeleton in one of the tank corners after a couple days...the one time I did find a body, i wondered for a second what the heck kind of fish it was, as I didn't reconize it at all.