Dead fish vanished in 24 hours?

[stillnzcookie]

I noticed today that we only had three harlequin rasboras left in our tank The fourth one has lasted a lot longer than I ever expected - it was about 5 years old, and for the last year or so it has had a tumour growing on its nose. I took the approach that, as long as it was swimming fine, eating, had good colour and seemed otherwise happy, I would let it be, but if it seemed to be suffering I would put it out of its misery.

Anyway, apart from a massive lump on its nose, it seemed fine until yesterday, but I noticed it missing this afternoon. Hubby offered to remove it, but it was nowhere to be found! He didn't quite strip down the tank, but he moved all the hardware and the driftwood, and felt through all the plants, and...nothing. Is it possible that the other fish (and snails) could have totally eaten it in such a short space of time, or do I need to have another go tomorrow and pull the whole tank to pieces? Or should I just do a couple of extra water changes (I did one tonight) to prevent an ammonia spike?

[kinnadian]

We've had fish eaten to the skeleton before and then the skeleton gets stuck under the sand or some driftwood. Also had some fish get sucked up into the external filter causing quite the ammonia spike.

I'd have a better look, particularly with a bright light looking for a skeleton. Also depends on what fish you have, some will eat the corpse others won't, so it may very well just sit there decomposing for weeks.

[Caryl]

A fish can also easily disappear that quickly as it will have been eaten by the other inhabitants.

[stillnzcookie]

Thanks for the replies. I think it must have been eaten, as we've both had a pretty good look and can't find anything - I'm just surprised it happened so quickly and completely. I guess I'll just keep an eye on the ammonia level and do a water change if it spikes.