african cichlids disappearing?

[doubleb]

i have a 55 gal. african cichlid tank with plenty of hiding spots. i currently have 7 mbuna all about 2-2.5 in long and a striped raphael about 5 in. long...i started out with 10 cichlids and i noticed they were slowly diminishing in numbers until there were only 6 so i bought 3 more only to find the numbers drop again. this happened about 3 different times, ill see a fish swimming around healthy one day then it will be gone. its not always the newcomers and i have yet to find one body. i thought it may be the catfish until just today i bought a 4" clown loach, put him in the tank, went to work and now hes gone......the cichlids i have arent too aggressive at all toward eachother and i checked all around the tank for any jumpers but after losing about 5 fish and never finding a body im getting frustrated..please help!

i have no cats, and i checked the filters..could one get killed and the others just eat him completely before i even notice hes gone?

[kb]

spooky!!! how is your tank covered? do you have a cat? is there enough room for some kind of other pet to jump on top of the tank and catch fish?

otherwise the cichilds may be eating them....sure they don't SEEM agressive towards each other but u can't watch them 24 hours a day, u should research cichild behaviour, maybe they get agressive at night (when your sleeping) or something. are the fish that have gone missing smaller than the rest of the fish? they are more likely to get eaten if they are the smaller ones.

also how's your filtering system set up? any chance the fish could accidentally swim up and get caught in your filtering system?

[mickeyp]

With a catfish and Cichlids its a very real possibility that the fish are getting eaten and that's why your not seeing any body's.

Fish will all eat dead fish especially the catfish.

But still even if that is the case you need to find out why they are dieing. Is your water ok ? ammonia - 0.0 nitrite - 0.0 nitrates below 20 ppm. Your ph should be from 8.0 to 8.5

The Raphael catfish at 5 in could very easily eat a 2 inch fish. You would notice the giant bulge in his stomach though. Did you check under and in all the caves and rock work ? take out all of it and do a head count. Good Luck

Edit : Ok if you just put in a clown loach and he was gone within hours I am now convinced you just haven't checked anything. A loach wouldn't get eaten that fast so I say again check all you decor for hidding fish