Hippo dissapears and bta looks like crap.

[stingeragent]

So this morning i couldnt find the hippo. I fed the tank to see if he was hiding but he didnt come out. My fiance was home all day and never saw him. I looked around the tank, overflows, sump, etc and no sign. My fiance commented that the bta looked like it had been ran over by a mack truck which it indeed does. Could it have swallowed the tang and thats why it looks that way? Other fish are accounted for and look fine as well as the coral. Everything last night was fine, and I had also unrelatedly checked all my water param's last night, so I can figure out dosing, and everything seemed normal. I do have a small dog and cat, so if he jumped it's possible he got ate, but it just seems so strange to me. Does anyone else have experience with a nem eating a fish, and if it's appearance changes after that? For what it's worth, I've had that fish since march and then is the first day I've ever not seen him, so I think him being in hiding is out of the question. Did have an ATO run , or anything else over night that could have impacted water param's.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

The only fish a bta will eat is a dead one. Their sting isn't bad at all either so that isn't why your fish is gone. But that doesn't look like a BTA. Do you have any other pictures of it?

 

[stingeragent]

Well the nem is back and fully open. This is a macro shot from a few days ago. It's for sure a bta. If it will only eat a dead fish, only thing I can conclude is the fish jumped and my dog or cat ate it. Saw the hippo last night, and like the other fish in the tank, no signs of disease or anything else. All ate last night. Checked ammonia and it's still 0, so I can't think of anything that would have killed it overnight. I've got no clue on this one. Guess it's time for a screen top.

Edit: I did find a shrimp in one of my overflows though. Completely unrelated but got him out.

Last pic I took of the little guy. /sad face

 

[Marchillo]

I was gonna suggest overflow. I found my missing shrimp about two weeks ago in my overflow! Sorry about your fish.

 

[Dkuhlmann]

Well it is definitely a BTA, with no ammonia I doubt it's dead in your tank. Good idea for checking that. So since you have a dog and cat...

 

[stingeragent]

Yea that's the only thing I can conclude. When I was moving my 40B from one room to another a month or 2 ago, I put my 2 clowns in a temp tank for about a week. One morning I looked and only had 1 clown. Looked all over the floor and it was nowhere. Seeing as how it was a 10 gallon temp tank, was fairly easy to determine the fish wasn't in the tank. Never saw it again. My dog and or cat, are getting expensive treats.

 

[Giants13]

I had a buddy have some of his fish missing and corals being eaten, and come to find out he had a bobbit worm.

 

[stingeragent]

Ouch. Yes I have heard about those. Fortunately not the case here. I rinsed all the sand that went into the 125 a few weeks ago, and no worms,lol.

Edit: In other news, after this fish dissapearing today, it kind of boggles my mind how many new folks on here, try and cycle their tanks with fish only to have the fish end up dieing on them. I've been depressed all day after losing this one.

 

[Marchillo]

Ouch. Yes I have heard about those. Fortunately not the case here. I rinsed all the sand that went into the 125 a few weeks ago, and no worms,lol.

Edit: In other news, after this fish dissapearing today, it kind of boggles my mind how many new folks on here, try and cycle their tanks with fish only to have the fish end up dieing on them. I've been depressed all day after losing this one.

I agree with this. Knock on wood since i started saltwater a year ago, no fish casualties on my 7 fish. But freshwater years ago I lost a lot of fish and hated that and quit. That's why I am on here so much doing the best I can to do things right. I can't imagine purposely doing that to a fish