MIssing Neons

[jjande2]

My neons have all vanished. No body - nothing. I have a dwarf bristlenose placo. Is it possible that it is eating my neons at night? I know they will eat almost anything, but a live fish? My other fish are swords, goldbarbs, and zebras.

 

[Cheese Specialist]

Plecs aren't really equipped to eat live fish. May be able to if the fish is dead.

Have you checked you water parameters?

 

[JamesTasker]

It is possible that the pleco will eat them. However this will only happen if they are already dead. The reason they are dying is not because the catfish is attacking them.

 

[jams.alaskan]

It dosen't sound like you have neon eaters in your tank. Neons of today can be fragile and if your water isn't good you could be loosing them that way. Have you checked for ammonia, nitrites and nitrate? If you can then post your results here and folks can let you know if that is what is going on.

ALASKA

 

[Sky042]

right now I'm discovering how fragile neons today are. they're dying off due to nitrate being above 40ppm thats the only thing I can think of. other than the 6.8/0/0 shouldn't be killing anyone.

 

[guppymonkey]

I have had more than a few neons disappear since I got them most of a year ago. Depending on how large the tank is they could either die and get stuck under something, jump out to explore their surroundings or die and get eaten by the other tank inhabitants. I had a neon disappear, I cleaned out all of the plants and rocks in the tank and still didn't find it. Then a month later I found a half rotten neon body floating on the top of the tank!

In general neons are annoying fish to me. They can't stand much stress and all too often fall victim to the dreaded neon tetra disease.

 

[Cian McLiam]

I haveheard of plecos eating neons before, neons sleep just above the substrate at night and plecos can sometimes creep up on them and just hoover them up! However, its very unlikely even an adult bristlenose could eat a neon, perhaps there are a few floaters tangled in the plants, stuck in the filter inlets or at the surface around the edges. All popular final resting places with my neons.

Ken

 

[ddm18]

Not quite the same thing, I know, but a while ago I had a large common pl*co (about 8", I think) which ate one of my cories. I saw it happen - the cory was pecking about in the gravel, minding it's own business, and it nudged my pl*co, who flicked round, instantly and his 'sucker' went right over the head of the cory, I jumped up, hoping to scare the pl*co and make it release the cory, instead it just carried on and completely ignored me (which was unusual because this was a particularly shy pl*co). When this didn't work, I put my hand in and flapped it about near the pl*co, who just took the cory with him into his 'lair'!!!

After that, I decided it was time to swap the big pl*co for a smaller one!