# Cichlid disappearance.



## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

I have a 30 gallon fish tank, with about 8 African Cichlids. All about 1"-2" long.

Basically, I look into my tank one day and I'm missing a fish. No dead body in the tank, no body in the filter, he is no where to be found. I lifted up every thing out of the tank except the gravel and still nothing.

If he got eaten by my other cichlids I would have for sure seen them attacking his dead body. 

I don't know what could have happened? This is so bizzare. Anyone heard of this?

Thanks!


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## emc7 (Jul 23, 2005)

Call it "crispy critter" syndrome. Look under all the furniture in the room. 

Though I did once have a cichlid go down the undergravelfilter tube and get under the filter. That was bizarre.


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

emc7 said:


> Call it "crispy critter" syndrome. Look under all the furniture in the room.
> 
> Though I did once have a cichlid go down the undergravelfilter tube and get under the filter. That was bizarre.


Ugh.  
My filter isn't a undergravel. I looked on the floor, nothing.


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

Keeping that many African cichlids (I'm assuming they're "mixed Africans" and not even properly identified) in a 30 isn't going to work out in the long run. When they start maturing the dominant fish will beat the snot out of the others, and if you have an auratus in the mix the rest will be toast.


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

At some point you'll find a hard body part, like a spine, in the gravel. watch for ammonia spikes.


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

toddnbecka said:


> Keeping that many African cichlids (I'm assuming they're "mixed Africans" and not even properly identified) in a 30 isn't going to work out in the long run. When they start maturing the dominant fish will beat the snot out of the others, and if you have an auratus in the mix the rest will be toast.


Hmm, we'll see! I have 6 tanks, one being a 100 gallon. So if I have an issue it's solved already. And that doesn't really answer my question but thanks for the comment.


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## Babydelux3 (Jul 5, 2010)

JimW/Oscar said:


> At some point you'll find a hard body part, like a spine, in the gravel. watch for ammonia spikes.


Alright, thanks.


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## toddnbecka (Jun 30, 2006)

JimW/Oscar said:


> At some point you'll find a hard body part, like a spine, in the gravel. watch for ammonia spikes.


I had 5 L-204 pleco's and a group of 6 von rio tetras sharing a 29 with 5 polka-dot loaches. Sand substrate, eheim canister, and an air-driven sponge filter. All of the tetras and 2 of the pleco's went MIA w/out a trace. No crispy fish on the floor, not a single bone to be found when I moved out the driftwood and siphoned the sand every week or two.


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## JimW/Oscar (Jul 4, 2010)

toddnbecka said:


> I had 5 L-204 pleco's and a group of 6 von rio tetras sharing a 29 with 5 polka-dot loaches. Sand substrate, eheim canister, and an air-driven sponge filter. All of the tetras and 2 of the pleco's went MIA w/out a trace. No crispy fish on the floor, not a single bone to be found when I moved out the driftwood and siphoned the sand every week or two.


Yeah I've had that happen too, botia loach just vanished into the thin air...er...water....whatever.

In my mbuna tank once though my eyebiter vanished and I found no trace for a month then suddenly as if re-emerged from the Bermuda Triangle I found a part of a spine.

I also once had a blue lobster that vanished, after a huge ammonia spike I found it dead buried deep into the gravel in a corner.


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