Silent Killer

[LuSciOuS_GirL]

Hi

well few days ago one of my guppies died. His tail was completely ripped off. I took him out and forgot about this whole situation.
Today I woke up, to find my other male guppy missing. And then I noticed my BGKF is extremely fat. Like his belly is huge. I truly believe he ate my guppy. BGKF is about 9in long.

Now am I right ? could he eat guppies? (i have 2 left in the tank one male and one pregnant female)

my GK always been so peacfull. He eats out of my hand, he has never attacked any other fish in the tank. I also have Angel fish in the same tank pleco and I think a pink skirt. Also I have 11 baby guppies who are about 3 weeks old. they are separated. now even though my Angel is big I can't see him eating a guppy.

so what should i do? take out my guppies? should I even bother releacing my babies into the main tank when they get older ? or will he eat them?

 

[DarkEntity]

Why are you shocked that a nocturnal Predator has well....done what he does best....As much as they are lovely and generally peacfull, they are still predators.

 

[LuSciOuS_GirL]

Why are you shocked that a nocturnal Predator has well....done what he does best....As much as they are lovely and generally peacfull, they are still predators.

see we had him for a while now. And when we bough him they said that he will only be agressive to other GkF. And nothing about him eating other fish.
Now i love him and i am not getting rid of him,. But should i take out remaining guppies? I mean it can't be good for him eating them.

 

[eschaton]

Aggression is something different from predatory behavior.

Territorial fish are aggressive towards fish around their own size or larger. A lot of times (like with Mbuna Cichlids) the fish themselves are herbivores. They want to drive the other fish out of their territory - kill it if they can.

Predatory instincts are different, as that's what carnivorous fish feel towards fish small enough to fit into their mouth. There won't be any warning of this, because in the wild fish don't pick at their prey for a few weeks before deciding to eat them.

Now that he knows a guppy = food, he will eat them all. He'll probably be able to eat the pink skirt eventually as well. The pleco and probably the angel will be fine.

 

[DarkEntity]

Why are you shocked that a nocturnal Predator has well....done what he does best....As much as they are lovely and generally peacfull, they are still predators.

see we had him for a while now. And when we bough him they said that he will only be agressive to other GkF. And nothing about him eating other fish.
Now i love him and i am not getting rid of him,. But should i take out remaining guppies? I mean it can't be good for him eating them.

You have to remember the BGK will be a 20" fish so its natural for it to want to be king of the tank, and for it to eat things it feels should be eaten

If you dont remove the virus fish (guppies) he will

 

[Mr._Fishy]

Others might disagree, in my experience, he will pluck the eyes out of the angelfish. He did that to one of mine. But yes, now that he has figured out that the guppies are food, he will eat the rest. The pleco should be fine.

Ryan

 

[CFC]

Now i love him and i am not getting rid of him,. But should i take out remaining guppies? I mean it can't be good for him eating them.

Why would it not be good for him, in the wild small fish would be a large part of his natural diet, he thinks they are yummy.

Others might disagree, in my experience, he will pluck the eyes out of the angelfish. He did that to one of mine

I've had a BGK that liked to eat the eyes of other fish as well, once they start that behaviour they will do it to any fish they can sneak up on in my experience.

 

[LuSciOuS_GirL]

Thanks everyone for their explanation.

I've been watching him very closly and i've noticed that he chases my pleco and that fish swims for its life, i thought of putting pleco with our oscar which has his own tank. But i don't know if I HAVE TO HAVE some other algea eater in the tank??? do i need one or can my tank survive without algea eater.


I will move my guppies to a 15g tank and keep them there since my daughter loves them. and like i said i have one pregnant almost ready to drop her fry, and some 3 weeks old fry. I really don't want them to die.

However may be I should consider changing my GKF diet???

I feed him 2-3 times a day. he eats staple food tablets, frozen blood worms, frozen krill, and frozen tropical food. Now i usually give him one type of frozen food, and a tablet. may be i should give him less frozen foods?

 

[shroob]

No tank needs an algea eating fish. If you dont like algea, just remove it manually with a scraper or similar. I personally use pot scourers.

I dont know much about BGKF, but if I understand you, you think a change in diet will stop him munching other fishes? If so I dont think that will help, afterall the temptation of a moving living prey will still appeal to him I think.

 

[CFC]

Your BGK diet should be made up of a variety of frozen and/or live foods such as shrimp/krill and bloodworms and larger meaty foods such as mussels and prawns as it grows larger. They are carnivorous predatory fish and need a high protein based diet in order to thrive.

 

[Straydum]

you might wanna get a bigger plec if you really need one, though bkgs dont really care about the size of the fish. well at least mine doesnt. it took out a small part of the fin of my fire eel. i'd agree with the manual algae removal actually.

 

[Butch]

What's a BGKF? Sorry I don't know what it means. I'm recently joined this forum.

 

[Esfa]

Black Ghost Knife.

 

[benniebru]

big fish eat little fish end of story

 

[jourdy288]

Oh, and don't forget, an angelfish can eat a baby guppy faster than you can say "Wow, that was fast."