Fish gone AWOL

A few years ago, we bought a 10 gallon fish tank as a family gift. The tank sits up on top of the entertainment center right next to where my desk is.

10 gallons is a manageable size for a fish tank. I had 4 tanks at one time: a 55 gallon, 32 gallon, 10 gallon and a 5 gallon (fry tank). That was just totally insane and a long story about how I got into it in the first place. Trust me though when I say, after cleaning 4 tanks on a bi-weekly basis for a few years I thought it cured me from ever having another fish tank again.

Apparently not!

I set up the tank and bought 4 tetras as starter fish. I didn't want to pay a lot of money for fish to have them die on me. 1 expired and the rest seemed to be doing pretty well. After a month had passed, I thought I could probably put 2 or 3 smaller fish in there and that would pretty much be it. So, I bought 3 more...2 had longer fins and prettier colors to add some pizazz and I bought a catfish to help with the algae.

Within a week...the catfish and one of the long finned fish died. I think they were beaten up by the tetras, which normally aren't hostile to other species, but they had claimed this tank as their 'hood and I guess there were being kind of protective.

A little while after that, I tried these pretty little teeny tiny fish that I just liked because they were pretty. They were schooling fish, and so I bought 5 of them and my thinking was that they can huddle together like a little fish gang and protect each other.

They were eaten one by one by the other fish. I would wake up one morning and another one was gone.

I was down to the same three starter tetras and the long finned fish that wasn't as pretty as he was when I fight bought him because he kind of had chunks bitten out of him. But he is a survivor and actually, he seems to be the dominant fish of the tank!

These 4 little guys have been swimming around and keeping me company while I type away for about 3 years now.

It's not a big tank, it's not a fancy tank, but for some reason I find it kind of relaxing to watch them swim around.

I always do a fin count when I'm feeding them...just to make sure we are all still there and last night...one did not come up for his food. Hmmmmmmmm

I looked all over this tank and I can't see him or any remnants of him - where the heck did he go? He was there on Tuesday and gone on Wednesday.

Not a fin or scale to be found.

I'm going to have to pull the tank apart and see if he jumped into the filter in some kind of Finding Nemo ploy to escape back into the wilderness.

He didn't have a name - but he will be missed.