The past few months I've noticed two fish (at different times) totally disappear. I only buy community fish and I check my tank every day. I ultimately blamed the missing fish problem on my cats because there is a small opening in the back of the aquarium cover and I thought one of the cats must have patted the water with his paw and the fish swam up thinking they were going to get fed. But after the second fish disappeared I covered all openings so there was no way a cat could do anything.

But the other day when I was vaccuming the tank I noticed a small strange thin white strip of something and then checking the tank afterward I noticed a male swordfish that I had bought a week earlier was gone. (There was no fish body parts floating around, but nor were there the 2 missing fish times before that either). He was just completely gone. So now this is my third fish. And there is nobody else that cares for the fish except me.

I have a 10 gallon tank (soon to get a bigger one) with 2 small Black Skirted Tetras, 2 (now 1) Swordfish, and 2 rapidly growing Pleco Algae Eaters who are about 5 inches at present. I am constantly hearing that people overfeed their fish, how leftover food upsets the proper balance of the water etc etc. I was feeding them once a day (as recommended by a fish store) flake food with tidbits, but now I'm feeding them twice a day and adding some tropical sinking wafers, because now I'm suspecting my Plecos had something to do with this situation and all I can think of is because I wasn't feeding them enough. Any thoughts??

I once blamed my cat for a missing fish I had sitting in a container while waiting to put it into the tank years ago. Months later, I found the fish's dessicated body under the washing machine. The hole in the aquarium might have allowed the fish to jump out, flop around, and end up someplace where you haven't found the fish (or perhaps the cat then got it). Cats aren't great fishermen, at least not through small holes in the aquarium.

I have a section entitled, "Where did my fish go?" at
http://www.fishpondinfo.com/health4.htm#where that may give you some ideas. In my tanks, I've had fish vanish. I believe a lot of them die where they're not seen and then are either eaten by the other fish or the bacteria and funguses in the tank before being discovered. Just this Saturday, while cleaning, I found part of a spine. That was all that was left of a rosy barb that must have died and been eaten by the others the week before. Could the "white strip" you saw be bone from the missing fish?

If the swordtail died, the plecos and the other fish would all have chewed on it. The plecos could easily eat most of the meat off a dead fish in a day or two. Plecos normally do NOT kill healthy living fish but will eat dead ones.

I feed my fish twice a day. My big pleco gets cucumbers and sinking algae wafers (one wafer at night). My pleco page is at http://www.fishpondinfo.com/pleco.htm

The fish species you have rarely kill and eat each other due to lack of food. Since you're feeding twice a day, it's not very likely. I suspect the missing fish first died for other reasons and then were eaten.

I hope no more fish vanish!

Thanks for the enlightening me of more possibilities. -Oh the things we have to think of. Let me go feed my pleco his nightime wafer.