Yesterday afternoon I bought a small (3") black ghost knife fish and put it in my 120gallon tank. Tankmates are a large very docile pleco (had been with neons and guppies before and not bothered a thing), some medium sized parrot cichlids, 2 weather loaches (which do just fine in the warmer temps) and a bunch of cory catfish.
I left to go for dinner and hang out with a friend for about 4 hours. When I got home, the knifefish was gone. There is NO sign of him. No carcass. No dead body on the floor (which isn't really possible anyhow as the tank is tightly covered). I have moved everything in the tank and there is no sign of the bugger. My filter intakes are all covered. I checked the canister anyhow...no dice.
I have very fine gravel/sand subtrate....I've moved a lot of it around looking for him, but I didn't go over every inch of the substrate (did piss off my burrow-loving weather loaches though...). Are knifefish known to burrow their entire bodies under substrate?? You would think I would be able to see some sign of a pitch black fish under crystal substrate but apparently not. I got under the cabinet to look for signs of him...nothing there either but the substrate bed is a few inches deep.
Where the heck could he have gone? Could parrot cichlids, who never bother nor pay any attention to my loaches, polish off a knifefish with no sign whatsoever in a few hours?
Or is it possible the dummy is hiding in the sand bed somewhere....I fed bloodworms today to try to draw him out to no avail.
It's, needless to say, driving me bonkers.
I left to go for dinner and hang out with a friend for about 4 hours. When I got home, the knifefish was gone. There is NO sign of him. No carcass. No dead body on the floor (which isn't really possible anyhow as the tank is tightly covered). I have moved everything in the tank and there is no sign of the bugger. My filter intakes are all covered. I checked the canister anyhow...no dice.
I have very fine gravel/sand subtrate....I've moved a lot of it around looking for him, but I didn't go over every inch of the substrate (did piss off my burrow-loving weather loaches though...). Are knifefish known to burrow their entire bodies under substrate?? You would think I would be able to see some sign of a pitch black fish under crystal substrate but apparently not. I got under the cabinet to look for signs of him...nothing there either but the substrate bed is a few inches deep.
Where the heck could he have gone? Could parrot cichlids, who never bother nor pay any attention to my loaches, polish off a knifefish with no sign whatsoever in a few hours?
Or is it possible the dummy is hiding in the sand bed somewhere....I fed bloodworms today to try to draw him out to no avail.
It's, needless to say, driving me bonkers.
No bones, no carcass, nothing.
