missing fish

i had recently gone on vacation, for a week, and asked my mom to take care of the fish, giving her all the instructions on feeding and other care. that was three weeks after i got the tank. everything was perfectly fine when i left........

and i got a call two days before coming back home, saying that two of my kissing gouramis were not there. my mom says they "just vanished".

and some time later one of the blue gouramis was found dead, with a chunk of the body missing.

i came back home this morning, and i suspect that the goldfish or the shark catfish is eating up these guys. which one is it? no one has actually seen anything happen, i havent even witnessed any bullying going on. please help!!!!!!!!! i'll put the predator in another tank as soon as i know who it is.

list of fish (when i left)

2 goldfish
2 shubunkin goldfish
2 blue gourami
4 kissing gourami
2 pangasius shark catfish

list of fish (when i came back)

2 goldfish
2 shubinkin goldfish
1 blue gourami (1 found murdered)
2 kissing gourami (2 vanished without a trace)
2 pangasius shark catfish

Ok, 1) you have a mix of tropical and coldwater fish 2) What size is your tank? You have a lot of fish there that get very large.

As for the disapearances - is the tank an open top? Could the fish have jumped? How big are the missing fish in comparisson to the others?

OK - my instinct is one of two things -

1) some deaths (your tank is still young and its possible you lost some fish to water issues) you wont find bodies with catfish around - they are scavengers and predators by nature (an easy meal is always welcome ot a catfish)

The other thing is that the catdfish may well ahve done the killing themselves - without pic and size comparaisons toother fish its hard to say for sure

as for the tropical and cold mix - well, he lives in India as far as I know - so unless someone spends alot of money on a cooler - they are all going to be living in temperate water temp anyway

right..... so i'll move the two catfish. my tank is only 30 litres at the moment (i was gifted a 10 litre tank with all these things already inside, but found it too small, then i shifted them)

but i'll be getting a bigger tank soon, i'll try to get something atleast 100 litres in size. it's raining here so things are cool, the daytime temp is 28 degrees C. for you guys in the UK and the US that must be hot- for us here 28 C is cool, it can get as high as 41 C in summer.

and as far as i know the water is usually 2 to 3 degrees colder than the outside.

as for jumping out- there's a metal lid.

the sizes- the blue gourami was 3 inches, the sharks are both 4-5 inches at the moment. (very young)

the kissing gourami are about one and a half inches each (babies) and still growing.

Wow I forgot you were in India - those temperatures are crazy.

The Pink Kissers at that size are really young so for a couple to die and disappear is not unusual - likely the other fish ate the bodies.

Here in the UK we would definitely think 300l+ for the fish you have but I suspect fishkeeping in India is pretty different...

yes, fishkeeping in india is very different...... none of the pet stores here have a cooler or a heater that they use... only up for sale sometimes........

and the fish have to live in whatever temperatures they get. poor things. but they survive.

how much do you get your tanks and fish for, in the uk? i got that 30 litre tank for 6.27 british pounds (when converted) and the fish come in pairs, the shark pair was for 38 pence... the goldfish 63 pence..... i guess thats cheaper than the uk??

Wow that's cheap! But how does it compare to income? If you work for say £1 per hour then 63p for 2 fish is fairly expensive, if you earn £10 per hour it is pretty cheap.

A 30l tank new is anything from £15-£40 here and fish are usually a minimum of 50p each usually more, A Kissing Gourami in my LFS is about £3-4

it sounds just like rich and indi have said - the catfish most probably had the gouramis
its a pity they are lovely fish - sorry you lost them mate



dekker

well about income i don't really have a clue, i'm still 14 and in school. my dad runs his own business and he doesn't get paid by the hour, i don't really know how much he earns. he won't tell me all that.

OK - this may shock you - we can pay more that £30 for a fairly 'common' plec species (eg a golden nugget near me is £38) my snowball plec was £20 when I bought it - now they sell for £40

However _ as your already not too far from the usual sources/breeders of these fish - the transport costs are not the same and that makles a big difference

same as live rock here lol the states have it as cheap as $3 a kilo maybe cheaper
but here the cheapest i can find is £8 per kilo but the average price for my area is £12.95 per kilo

THIRTY POUNDS FOR A PLEC!!!

man thats real expensive.... the most common plecs here come for about 1 pound for a pair- that is, when they are small. never seen the golden nugget plecosotomus here. the larger ones (12 inches and more) can cost a lot more, maybe up to 10 pounds a pair.

common plecs aree cheap - they breed like flies

Bristlenose plecs will go for anything (in my area anyway) between £3 and £12 - i get em free now that mine are breeding like - ummm - flies

other more 'exotic' plecs cost more as im sure Ownz will attest too