Tiger barb eaten by mystery snail?

[snakeskinner]

I'm a little confused at the moment. Friday night I noticed one of my green tiger barbs (about 1" or a little larger) was getting skinny but still acting fine as far as schooling and eating. yesterday afternoon I couldn't find him so I coaxed him out by feeding the tank and he was obviously weak and moving slowly. he tried staying hidden in the floating hornwort I have in the tank. Upon closer inspection, I noticed a couple ich spots so I netted him for my hospital tank. This is the first fish in the hospital tank since I set it up. I have a 10 gallon tank, no substrate with a large plastic cave/plant decoration for something to hide in, a large media bag with ceramic bio media and an airstone. It has a real cheap whisper filter which I am fixing to add an additional penguin mini here in a few minutes to help out. After ammonia cycling I added my two mystery snails which are a black 1.25" and a yellow 2.5". I feed them fresh lettuce and the yellow one is known to eat enough lettuce for a whole salad in one sitting so I figure he alone can keep the bacteria alive with the bio-load. Anyways, yesterday afternoon the green tiger barb was swimming around ok in the tank except when he'd get in the bubbles or the filter path and he wasn't strong enough to hold his own. I had added a little salt to the tank, cranked up the temp to about 78 from 74 and added some Rid-ich. This morning I found the barb wedged inbetween the bio-bag and the tankside. I moved the bag and he swam down the side so he was still alive. This afternoon when I got home I went to check on him again and he has disappeared. I removed the bio bag and the ornament, moved around the bubblewand and felt back behind the filter pickup and outlet. No barb. Do you think it's possible for the mystery snail(s) to have eaten the whole barb 100% gone in a few hours? I've found carcasses before but there always seems to be something left. I even opened up my filter and looked around with a flashlight. I expected to at least find a skull or some backbone but nothing. There is an opening in the hood around the filter but I don't see how he could possibly have had enough strength to jump out, especially with the filter current right there. My only other possibility is that my cat figured out how to use the net and pulled him out for lunch. anyone had this happen before? Kyle

 

[Leopardess]

Yes, quite possible. Especially with the larger snails. I think there have been about three posts this week alone about snails eating dead fish - must be a hungry time of year