Missing Peal Danio?

[Knight~Ryder]

I just went to look and I counted the fish and there were 10, not 11. The pearl was missing. It was the smallest of the bunch. I did see him swimming by himself a lot of the time. (at least I think it was that one)

I looked everywhere? Maybe he/she is in a hiding spot...but even then I looked.

Is it possible that he one of the other fish ate him, or if he died, then another fish ate him? Do those blackskirts do that?

Or is he/she in the filter? Which I can't see how as I have the emporer 280....

This is confusing.

[emc7]

If a fish dies, the others may pick the bones clean. Or it could've jumped out.

[Obsidian]

Anytime this happens:
First: Search everywhere outside the tank as if he has jumped then he is the least safe (often even if they look dead when found out of the tank if you toss them back in they are okay). Search very thoroughly for an area greater than you would ever suspect a fish could get to.

Second: Search the filter by turning it off and taking a look. Recently I had a danio swim up the output of my filter and decide to swim around in there a bit. The water level was a bit too high, which I corrected

Third: Search the tank, often if they die the will go under ornaments and make it very hard to find so check all areas move things around a bit etc. If you cannot find the body or the fish just wait it out, it will likely come out of hiding.

FOURTH and very important! If you cannot find a corpse or the fish anywhere CHECK AMMONIA READINGS. If you are experiencing an ammonia spike the little guy died and is in there somewhere. This can be dangerous to your other fish so do a water change and search again.

If this is the cycling tank you are talking about then it is even more possible that it has died as that often happens with cycles where fish are involved. Even small amounts of ammonia or nitrite can be deadly to a sensitive fish. I lost all of my original fish when I cycled with fish, and that was with religious attention paid to keeping numbers as safe as possible during that time. It happens.

[Knight~Ryder]

I lifted the castle and turned it upside down. I found what looked like small peices of the fish skin? Kind of scaley I think...

I thought it might be the flake food that floated up, but most likely parts of the fish. I took the castle out and washed it and took the small few peices of the skin out.

That's all I found.

Also I noticed that when I moved the stuff around my tank, there was so much old flakes left. How on earth will I be able to clean that with just a syphon? I have way to many larger rocks, castles, and fake plants to clean all of it? To rearange it everytime I clean, which would be every month I have heard, would be a monsterous task?

[JustOneMore20]

If there is alot of leftover food on the bottom then you are overfeeding. Try feeding less.

[emc7]

Every week when you do a water change, use a gravel-washing siphon and take you water from and due a piece of the tank. Maybe the far right eighth one week, the next over then next. Move everything over to another section of tank. If you do 2 buckets a week, the tank should never get too bad. The more religious you are about partial water changes, the longer you can go without totally cleaning the tank.

If you are finding a lot of uneaten food after only a few days, either you are feeding too much, feeding something the fish don't like, or you need some fish that will eat off the bottom. Consider adding some cories to your stock list. Feed only as much as you watch your fish eat. Not in 10 minutes as some say, as much as you will sit there and watch, a minute or two. If every fish gets a few flakes a day, they will be just fine. If the flakes are too big, grind them smaller with your fingers.

In my 55 gallon cichlid tanks with gravel, I "break them down" every 6 months or so. I take out all the ornaments and wash all the gravel with a canister filter (usually a Magnum 350 or HOT magnum) with a micron filter in it. I should do it more often. It takes a few hours, longer if I've gone longer between breakdowns. It seems monstrous at first, but quickly becomes routine. I understand planted tanks need this less often (my plants are not in the substrate).