Ropefish Escaped - Cannot find

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g2orange

Feeder Fish
MFK Member
Sep 10, 2011
34
0
0
Florida
We have two ropefish. I found one on the floor by the aquarium this morning. I put him back in and he seems ok. The second one was in the tank when I put the first one back in at about 7:30 this morning. I added more packing tape to the tank where I thought the first one had escaped and had to leave the house for about 30 mins. When I got back, I couldn't find the second ropefish.

I know I only have a few hours to find the fish. I've looked everywhere near the aquarium with no luck. I'm going to search the rest of the house.

How fast do these fish move on land/carpet? Where are they likely to go when they escape?

Thanks for any advise. I'm going to frantically continue my search and check MFK later.
 
Yep. I checked the filter. No fish. I just didn't think they moved so fast that in 30 mins time, it would get somewhere that I can't find it. We have cats but I would know if one of them had gotten it. The cats can hear anything that is moving around them. And they aren't reacting at all. I'm assuming that the ropefish would go toward dark places where they would feel hidden. So I'm focusing on that. It's now been 2hrs and 15 mins since I last saw the missing ropefish in the tank. I'm off to keep looking.
 
do you have any other 4 footed pets.. is the carpet brown like the rope... keep looking..and hope you find him..
 
Oh my....Red Devil....your reply just made me think.....the Dog!!! She stays behind baby gates and doesn't get to go all over the house but it is possible that if the ropefish went that way, we won't ever find it again. I'm still looking but at this point, I'm not sure I will find the ropefish alive even if I ever find it.
 
how many feet away is the gate with puppy... i hope further away that we don't have to consider that possibility..
 
The gate is about 10 feet from the aquarium. I have looked everywhere. I've turn over the furniture (what I could lift) and looked underneath everything and under things with a flashlight. This morning, I found the first one on the carpet next to the tank all curled up. He wasn't moving and had carpet fibers stuck to him. When I put him back in the tank, he didn't move much for a long time. I can't imagine these fish moving very fast once they reach carpet. They are so shy and cautious in the tank. I'm going to go back over the house looking one more time. It's now been about 4 hrs since I last saw the fish in the tank. I think 4 hrs is about their limit for breathing out of the water. I just took all the packing tape off the tank and re-taped it so that the first ropefish can't escape again. Now that he's regained his wits, he's been looking up at the top of the tank probably planning his next escape.
 
g2orange said:
The gate is about 10 feet from the aquarium. I have looked everywhere. I've turn over the furniture (what I could lift) and looked underneath everything and under things with a flashlight. This morning, I found the first one on the carpet next to the tank all curled up. He wasn't moving and had carpet fibers stuck to him. When I put him back in the tank, he didn't move much for a long time. I can't imagine these fish moving very fast once they reach carpet. They are so shy and cautious in the tank. I'm going to go back over the house looking one more time. It's now been about 4 hrs since I last saw the fish in the tank. I think 4 hrs is about their limit for breathing out of the water. I just took all the packing tape off the tank and re-taped it so that the first ropefish can't escape again. Now that he's regained his wits, he's been looking up at the top of the tank probably planning his next escape.
Click to expand...
well i hope looking one more time gives you an answer.. but if not.. i quess you have to be thankful you were able to retrieve the other guy in time and he revived.. keep us posted and lots of luck.
 
Not sure what the fate of the little ropefish was because I still haven't found it. I've given up on finding it alive and I never imagined before now that one of the ropefish would escape and never be found. Anyway, the little ropefish that my son named Tolly is surely gone. I'm still not sure how he got out. My guess is that the packing tape lost it's stick somewhere because it got wet from normal evaporation. So to prevent that from happening again, I'm going to re-tape the tank every few days. I'm cycling another tank that has a closed top that will be the ropefishes new home and it's a shame we couldn't have kept Tolly a little longer. Then it would have been a lot harder for him to escape.

Thanks for the replies.
 
Here is an update. I hope that somehow this might help prevent the tragic death of another ropefish. I had thought that one of our pets had eaten our 8 inch long ropefish. We had 2 ropefish and one had escaped and I was able to recover it and put it back in the tank. It is doing okay. The second ropefish that we had named "Tolly" had disappeared. I moved all of the driftwood and ornaments in the tank looking for him; then I searched the house. Last night I found Tolly inside a hollow plastic ornament. The ornament looked like driftwood but was plastic and hollow on the inside with no outlet other than underneath the bottom. We have sand for substrate and my guess is that Tolly had burrowed under and gotten trapped inside. I looked inside this ornament when I was searching for Tolly and did not see him. I will never again put a hollow ornament like that one in any of our tanks. I've attached a pic of the plastic fake driftwood ornament.

fake driftwood.JPG
 
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