How did my fish disappear??

Question

Okay, so I have 3 fantail goldfish all about 1.5 inches long.

I also have a freshwater crayfish around the same size.

When I went on a 6-day vacation, I left a feeder in the tank.

I came back today to discover . . . hey! Two goldfish are gone!

I emptied the entire tank. There are no remains of any kind, and the top of the tank has a cover, so they could not have jumped out. No other pets or people had access to the tank.

I don't think the crayfish could have eaten 2 whole fish, bones and all, and besides, he's never been aggressive before. I don't know whether they could have completely decomposed so fast or not. Could the other goldfish be cannibalistic? Did he and the crayfish gang up on my others?

If you have any idea/theory as to what in the world happened, please let me know.

Answer 1

What likely happened is that the goldfish were sick or dead and the crayfish and other goldfish ate them, or your crayfish became very hungry while you were gone and caught the goldfish while they slept.

Yes, it can happen that fast and leave no remains.  I'm not sure what kind of crayfish you have, but several species are known to be quite aggressive.  Is yours blue?  They are mostly nocturnal, so your fish are sitting ducks on the bottom of the tank at night when they are sleeping.  If you have any pest snails in the tank, they will also do a quick cleanup job of sick or dead fish, or those that parts that the crayfish didn't consume quickly enough.

One might expect to find a skeleton when a fish dies, but with small fish, the bones are so thin and fragile that they are almost invisible to begin with, and fish, snails, etc. consume them with relative ease.

Answer 2

either i was eaten or my neighbor who is a marine and water biologist and professor sad i can be hiding in the rocks