What Is Attacking The Other Fish In My Tank?

[Twinkle1981]

hi,I am just new to this forum and have a problem in my tank as something is attacking and in some cases eating my other fish and I don't know what it is.

My weather loach was attacked yesterday, I have lost 2 male guppies, a swordtail and a young gourami. I have 2 male guppies left, one of which is having its tail nipped very badly, the other one ( the bigger male) is fine. I have 4 female guppies that have never been attacked.

I will list what I have in my tank:

3 sailfin mollies, a red tailed shark, a plec, weatherloach, 2 angelfish, 2 male guppies, 4 female guppies, 2 blind cory's, neon tetra's, zebra danio's and a young gourami.

The red tailed shark mostly keeps itself to itself but I have seen it chasing other fish now and again. The plec seems to go after everything in the tank, but I have never seen it actually attacking anything, more just chasing. I thought plecs were pretty placid. I'm wondering if it could be the angelfish ?

Ps I have just noticed one of my blind cory's has been killed as well

 

[gavnlisa]

hi,I am just new to this forum and have a problem in my tank as something is attacking and in some cases eating my other fish and I don't know what it is.

My weather loach was attacked yesterday, I have lost 2 male guppies, a swordtail and a young gourami. I have 2 male guppies left, one of which is having its tail nipped very badly, the other one ( the bigger male) is fine. I have 4 female guppies that have never been attacked.

I will list what I have in my tank:

3 sailfin mollies, a red tailed shark, a plec, weatherloach, 2 angelfish, 2 male guppies, 4 female guppies, 2 blind cory's, neon tetra's, zebra danio's and a young gourami.

The red tailed shark mostly keeps itself to itself but I have seen it chasing other fish now and again. The plec seems to go after everything in the tank, but I have never seen it actually attacking anything, more just chasing. I thought plecs were pretty placid. I'm wondering if it could be the angelfish ?

Ps I have just noticed one of my blind cory's has been killed as well

how big is your red tailed shark to the rest of the fish most likely its him, neighbour has a fifty odd litre tank n the only thing that wasnt getting terrorised by his red tailed shark was his pleco which was about 10 times bigger than it, what kind of pleco is it? have two angels myself but they only seem to bother other fish when i first put them in the tank.

 

[Miah002]

I think it's the angel or the red tailed shark.

 

[smegforbrains]

I think it's the angel or the red tailed shark.

+1 but I would be more inclined to think it would be the Angels. Evil little sods they get to be

 

[Miah002]

How big are thay?

 

[Twinkle1981]

The male guppy I found this morning had been half eaten but the blind cory never had a mark on it.

My tank is an 80 gallon. The red tailed shark is prob just about average size, its not overly big. The Plec is pretty big prob about 3 times the size of the red tailed shark. I have never seen the angels bothering anything else in the tank and I don't think they are big enough at the moment though to attack/kill my other fish, but I know they are ambush predators. As angels go they are quite small at the moment.

The red tailed shark keeps itself to itself, mainly hanging around in the plants or the caves I have. The plec is the only one I have seen chasing other fish regularly.

Im not sure what type plec it is, the pet store just sold it as a plec but its a pretty drab brown colour, not that that prob helps identify it.

 

[Miah002]

How big is it?

It might be a common plec.

Does it have bristles or anything else?

 

[Twinkle1981]

No bristles or anything. Its prob about 4 inches long.

 

[Miah002]

Is it a very dark colour?

http/www.scotcat.com/images/p_pardalis3.jpg

Does it look like that?

 

[Twinkle1981]

Nope its not that. I was looking through a book there and its actually identical to what the book is terming as an algae eater. But the pet store told me it was a plec. Im confused now. Or are plecs and algae eaters the same thing?

 

[Miah002]

Yep they're the same thing.

There are many different types of plecs and algae eaters.

 

[puppyjess123]

Right a chinese algae eater that explains the aggression

Quote from wikipedia "It has a reputation for becoming increasingly jealous of its territory as it matures, and also can be aggressive to fish, especially slow, flat-bodied fish. In the home aquarium, the algae eater makes a poor tank mate. It is very aggressive and boisterous They often attack other fish and rip off scales, causing infection."

 

[Twinkle1981]

http/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_algae_eater

It is identical to this.

 

[rdd1952]

Hello Twinkle and welcome to the forum.

After reading the posts, I'm going in a different direction. How long has the tank been set up? I really don't see fish in your tank that would be responsible for that many deaths although it certainly could be the CAE. If the deaths are definitely attributable to a fish, then I think that is the one. But I'm just wondering if some of the issues aren't related to ammonia and nitrite as opposed to another fish.

 

[Miah002]

Twinkle can you post a pic of your algae eater please?