Vanishing Fish

Please do NOT LOL but it is true h::embarrest: I bought a new Peacock Eel on Saturday morning at one of my LFS and on Sunday did Not see it in my aquarium any more. I know that they like to bury themselves under the gravel as my last one that died also used to go under the gravel from time to time. This new Eel it seems is not a Peacock Eel but a Harry Houdini Eel as it has disappeared totally out of sight. I this morning cleared all my plants and everything out of the way to look for it, I gently lifted all the gravel by hand to try to find it but with NO luck. I even stripped down my Tetratec EX1200 canister filter to see if by chance it got sucked in although I have a Sponge sock over the intake of the EX1200 suction. I have in the past lost some fish getting stuck to the suction side of the filter and the fish dying. I am just worried that he might die and poison the water causing other problems in the near future.

I have heard of Flying Fish but ..... Disappearing Fish !!!!!!!!????????********

Someone just the other day also said that his fish started to vanish out of sih tank without a trace, I thought that was funny until now that it has happened to me, Not funny at all

I really miss that fish the most ..... I hope I am totally wrong about this and he just pops out of Nowhere soon ...........

Cheers for Now
Andrewv:sad2:

 

I used to have issues with eels crawling out the tank, possibly could be dried up on the floor somewhere.

 

Eels are escape artists and will find any opening in the canopy.

Look around the back of the tank on the floor you will probably find him there. My 40cm fire eel is able to get half of his body above the surface of the water when he shoots straight up for food and if he really put some power into it I am sure he would clear the surface. if there was an opening he could get through close to the surface of the water he would be gone.

Luckily my one is pretty fat so there is no chance of him fitting through any of the holes but with a small one you need to be very careful.

I really hope you find him in the tank somewhere though. :wondering:

 

Hi All.
Sorry chaps you are all correct he jumped out and thats the end of him. So sad but thats life. My next one will go better. This is only a small part of my bad luck today. My tanks bottom cracked this afteroon I managed to save my fish but I now have to buy a new tank tomorrow. Maybe I should go bigger now. My question is what tank I should get ..... any Ideas out there??? What I should buy I can convince the wife as she feels so sorry for me.......Thanks in advance for all your guys help so far.
Andrewv.

 

If you are still planning on getting eels get a tank with glass sliders on top so you avoid getting unwanted biltong.Why did your tank bottom crack? Any clue?

 

Yip I will get a tank with sliding glass tops, I will get new eels for the new tank as well. The tank I bought was junk as I did not know better it was one made by DARO and was only 5mm glass base included. a 915mm (3ft) tank should have been made of at least 6mm glass and the base should be 8mm thick. I will not buy another tank like that again. I have now learn a lot here on the forums. I was just stupid not to have first done my homework before buying an aquarium. I now need to go today and get a new tank, but I need to get a decent one.

Any hints on what I should buy ........... Thanks in advance.
Andrewv

 

What sort of space have you got for setting up a tank?
What budget are you looking at?

Be careful of getting "Eels". They seldom play nice together and unless you have a very big tank rather stick with just one.

 

@Andrewv -I have about 14-15 tanks (not all set up) from 1.5ft (45cm) to 6ft (1.8m)
Some of the tanks are standard tanks from Daro (mainly the 4 small 1.5ft ones) the 2ft and 3 off 3footer.
I am not sure whether they were LFS built or from a company like Daro/Marlows ... But the glass thickness used are as follows:
1.5ft (30l)-3mm
2ft (65l) -4mm
3ft (Approx 90-100l) -5mm
No company will stay in business if they built anything which keeps on breaking. So Daro, like the rest will probably use the thinnest glass they can away with to minimise costs and maximise profits.

Now in another thread entitled "help my tank is bending" (or something like that) I stated that I wouldn't buy a non braced 3 footer unless it is made of thick glass.
It just happened so that I bought a 500l tank and stand from somebody on the 'Apsa' forum and as part of the deal he threw in 3 off 3ft tanks.
Well they were freebies and I was glad to have them. But even at 2/3 full I could clearly see that the glass displayed a slight bend (3mm total in the middle). So I got myself 6mm thick glass (the length of the tanks and 50mm wide) and I braced front and back of each tank.
Then I filled the tanks up to the brim and checked. Zero bend, zero as in 0.0

I believe you were going to brace your tank with a 295mm wide piece of glass in the middle, linking front and back parts (I hope I can trust my brain here).
Where do I want to go with this?
Well, I do not believe your bottom cracked because it was made out of 'only' 5mm thick glass.
Look at the standard tanks (1.5, 2 and 3 ft tanks) they are all more or less the same height. So the water column per square cm or squar inch is the same for all tanks (at same water level obviously) and yet they are made of 3, 4 and 5 mm bottoms. I am now only talking the weight of the water over the surface area of the tanks. In my illustration it is the same pressure and even 3mm glass copes with this, no problem. Glass will resist huge forces if applied correctly. And in your 3 ft standard tank, even with about 100l of water equals 100kg of weight, the pressure would not be that high, just look at the surface this weight is spread out on.
Do a test. Take a piece of your broken glass, put it on a level base and step on it. Your foot/shoe area will be a fraction of the base of your tank, your weight may be 70-80% of water weight discussed here and yet that piece of glass which will be exposed to perhaps 10+ times the water weight in your tank, will not break.
I am not convinced that your base is/was level or that perhaps in the search action to find your eel you may not have 'man-handled' your tank in such a way that it was still full of water but not standing level and than it went pop.
What are the odds that it happens on the same day and after your unsuccesful eel search and rescue mission?
Just my 2 cents, use it, don't use it, it is up to you.

But if you want a 3 ft with 8mm glass on the bottom, you will have to get it made specifically as I don't believe anyone builds it as standard.
Check on this site or perhaps the APSA site, somewhere there is a thread giving the minimum thickness for building tanks.
As an engineer, I like things built stronger than minimum required, so perhaps the 'custom made' route is what you should go for.

Good luck.
Keep us updated on your purchase.

 

Hi JCL, thank you for the reply. I understand where you are coming from in regards to the tank sizes and glass thickness sizes. No matter who makes the tank one would expect that they use a 6mm glass base on the standard 3ft tank as this carries the full mass of the total contents of that aquarium. The base is the foundation of the aquarium almost the same as a house has a foundation to support the structure. One would at least expect the manufacturer to bare that small cost between a 5mm and 6mm glass as this is their reputation here as their name is displayed on the base inside the tank. I do realize now why these tank are so cheap as they are low budget type tanks for the entry level people as myself. I will UPGRADE to a more expensive tank as I have gone bigger and better on the rest of my aquarium, Now I need to go better on the tank as well. I will NOT hold back on money this time around. I have my fish in a makeshift tank (Big plastic container 56L) I will have to do more water changes until I get the new tank ....... Talk about a rocky start to my new experience. I think we all go through phases in this hobby, i'm going through mine now and hope it improves quickly. I would rather spend my money on better things than to keep on buying new tanks.

As for causing the base to break due to me looking for the Eel, I do not buy this as I combed my fingers through the sand after removing all the plants and dropping the water level. The reason I dropped the water level was the fact when disturbing the sand created the water to go murky/dirty and I would not see him easy, Oh I also needed to work carefully as not to hurt him during the search. I would have needed to do a water change as well, which I did after not finding him. Only to end up with a broken aquarium at the end of the day. I do not know if it is a good or bad thing but I have to buy a new tank and a good one at that.

All suggestions are welcome as I need to put this behind me now and move forward quickly. I do not want to put the fish under heavy stress as they are in a Half the size area/volume tank/container whatever you want to call it. Budget wise I will just have to bite the bullet a bit and go for the best, not saying that I can over spend by thousands on rands but within reason. I think in and around 4K-5.5K complete base/cabinet tank and canopy. I am hoping to go a bit bigger but will go for thicker glass this time around.

Thanks to all for the input so far, you chaps are great ..........

Cheers
Andrewv.

 

@Andrewv -being Cape Town based I can not recommend a tank builder in Johannesburg as I don't know any. And when I loived in Jhb I didn't keep fish.
We will probably have to agree to disagree on why your base cracked and neither of can tender tangible proof for his argument.
I don't know your setup so made assumptions. Most people have the backs of their tanks standing against a wall. I thought that perhaps in an effort to look for your Houdini eel around the tank (behind and underneath) the tank was moved, pushed, lifted and tilted to one side .... etc.
Strange that it broke exactly on that day.

But you are right, the foundation is key.
Make sure it is level. And use styrofoam underneath your tank.
And while you are at it, let them brace the bottom too.
I heard of many tanks that split open or developped a leak at the 'seams'.

 

Ok I have gone shopping around for a new aquarium/tank/stand. I can get a good deal on two that I liked and that I can sort of squeeze in but I hope the "Mrs" will go with it. The first is a Boyu EA120 (4ft) at a exelent price (R930-00) cheaper than the other LFS. Then there is the SunSun with a bowed front which is a 280L tank for only R800-00 more than the first one, once I have the tank I will tel you what I paid for it. So now I need to decide what to do. I would appreciate the input from you all as this will be the deciding point and also No more Vanishing Eels as it will not be able to jump out of that tank. With the new tank I will have more space for the fish and I hope the fish will enjoy the extra space. Lucky I bought a big canister filter when I did, (Tetratec EX1200) will work nicely with the new tank.

Soom I hope to put an end to my Vanishing Fish, no more dried Eel biltong. Damn stupid fish did not like the food I gave them and tried to go and get take aways .................

Thanks to all for the help. I also would like to take this oppertunaty to say a BIG Thanks to the Moderators here on Tropicalaquarium and those who made it possible to have such a great Forum as This one, you all are Fantastic. Three Cheers to you :congrats::congrats::congrats: