Where did all my fish go?

[tripletmum8]

My daughter has a fish tank in her room, when she was getting ready this morning I noticed that 5 out of her 12 fish were missing. When I got home from the afternoon school run and went upstairs a further 3 fish were missing and now I’ve just gone into her room to check she’s sleeping and only 2 fish are left?

I would assume that the 2 left have ate the others but they don’t look like they have. Anyway, I know nothing about fish so anybody please suggest what might have happened.

Is there anywhere they could be hiding?
Is it possible a cat has had them?
Is there any way they could've jumped out the tank?

In the filter or dead in a corner and camouflaged on the gravel?

What type of fish are they (and the missing ones)? Do they have a filter etc and regular partial water changes using a water conditioner? How often are they fed?

Fish are actually fucking difficult to keep alive.
I have a chemistry degree and struggled with all the water balance nitrates nitrates stuff.

How old is your daughter? Does she check chemical levels? Partial water changes regularly? Does she have any clue about fish?

Chances are the water levels have gone to shit and the fish have died. They’ll be on the bottom of the tank, in a plant or under the gravel, or in the filter.

Honestly, fish are not a novice hobby. We now have a hamster in the tank (no water!) and he’s lived far longer than any fish did, with much less work keeping him alive!

My daughters 5, she has special needs and finds fish very calming. My step-daughter if an A-level Chemistry student so I rang her figuring she would have more knowledge than me on water levels but she was also confused. My husband deals with the fish and is on nightshirt so I’ll get him to check in the morning.

One of our cats did eat our last fish but he hasn’t been upstairs all day and the other cat is afraid of fish??

Quote from bluebluezoo. "Fish are fucking difficult to keep alive"

Not true if you do some online research and learn and know what you're doing. Have kept tropicals on and off for 40 years and they're not hard to keep and live years.

I second Yappys comment. Also, you do need to have a degree to successfully keep fish and in a other's posters case a degree didn't help anyway!

Either your cat ate them, it's a open top tank and they have jumped out, they are stuck in the filter (depending how big they are), or your daughter has done something with them

Does the tank have a filter?

Are they tropical fish? If so do you also have a filter.

What size is the tank? Is it overcrowded?

When you do partial water changes are you using a water conditioner to make the water safe for them and also to keep the filter healthy and “cycled”?

If you’re cleaning the filter media/sponges are you cleaning them in water taken from the fish tank? Tap water will kill the good bacteria in the sponges that keeps your tank cycled.

Read up on cycling a fish tank, find out what fish you have and see their care needs.

I meant do the tropical fish have a heater.

Also if the cat can access the tank, your daughter can too. Please cover it.