Blood-Fin Tetras?

Question
Hey Renee,

Ok so I just bought 4 blood-fin tetras yesterday

http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/characins/images/BloodfinTetraWFCh_C2352.j...

^^ those little guys. Although those in the picture are not mine.

Ok I bought 4 of them put them in my 29 gallon tank.I have a pleco that is about 5 inches long. 2 small angelfish. Two african dwarf and/or clawed frogs and one small catfish that is about 2 1/2 inches long. And I also have one iridescent shark about 4 inches long and he has been that length for a year.

After I put them in the water ( about 15 min after i put them into the tank in the bag with the water from the store ) I watched them for about the half hour and my larger frog showed intrest in them and went after one of them. The pleco was in his log thing. The shark was at his side of the tank he normally stays at. My angelfish nipped at them but did nothing more. ( they also fought eachother...the two angelfish I mean but that is something different i belive ) then after that my friends had come over and I went out with them at 12 and I came home at 5. The tank light was off at 5 when I got home. I looked into the tank I saw 3 out of the 4 tetras. I looked all over the tank and even in the log the pleco is always in. He is gone, no traces of him anywhere. Could one of my fish/frogs have eaten them? Or did he spontaneously combust?

~Danielle

Answer
Hi Danielle,

Yikes.  I have a couple fish ideas where he may have gone.  Maybe some examples of my own mishaps will help.

First, last time I was missing a fish, I found him a year later when I moved the stand.  He hadn't just jumped out.  He had wiggled across the floor, and underneath the stand.

Another place I've found a pleco was behind the aquarium.  The first couple times I looked, he didn't show up.  He blended with the carpet.

Tetra do not eat plecos.  Plecos are very strong, hard-boned fish and they are very hard to eat.

Tetra, in fact, are very docile.

Did you look behind all filtation and inside all the decorations?

Is the pleco very tiny?

He could be hiding in a decoration or up, underneath the overhang to your filter.  There is a possibility he's jumped out or that the frogs got him.

How big are your dwarf frogs?  

He cannot spontaneously combust, lol, but that's a good one. :)

Renee