Who is eating my neon tetra?

[rr20981n]

Hello all,
I had a 36 gallon planted aquarium until 2 months back which had 15 neon tetra, 3 bosmani rainbow fish, 2 albino cory catfish, 6 guppies, 4 platties. Everyone was doing great until I just upgraded my tank to a 75 gallon planted tank and added few fishes. My current tank had these fishes when we newly upgraded it, 31 neon tetra, 7 black neon tetra, 4 albino cory catfish, 3 bosmani rainbow fish, 5 guppy (sadly 1 had died), 4 platties and the new addons are an adult male red irian rainbow(I'm attaching a picture, he's around 4.5 inch), 1 gold gourami(around 2inch), 2 Three spot gourami . Will be adding 6 more young red irian rainbow fish within 2 weeks.
The problem is here, yesterday we just noticed that the neon tetras reduced from 31 to 15within a span of 2 months and today morning when I checked it, there are only 11 of them.
My husband believes that the adult red irian rainbow fish is eating the tetra since he only eats frozen bloodworms and doesn't eat any flake food, brine shrimp or freeze-dried worms. Also we think that he's wild-caught.
I on the contrary think that the gourami is eating my tetra.

Your input will be highly appreciated.
Have a wonderful day ahead!

 

[Colin_T]

It's not wild caught and I don't think it's a pure Glossolepis incisus. It's pretty skinny and is certainly big enough to eat neons, so are the Melanotaenia boesemani. As a general rule you don't keep rainbowfish with small tetras because most rainbows will eat small fish.

If the fish only eats frozen food then stop feeding that and offer other types of food. Rainbows need lots of plant matter in their diet. Duckweed is a good plant to grow in tanks with rainbowfish.

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The rainbowfish need water with a GH above 250ppm and a pH above 7.0.
The guppies and platies need water with a GH around 200ppm and a pH above 7.0.

The other fish you listed come from water with a GH below 150ppm and a pH below 7.0.

 

[dmpfishlover]

It could be the rainbow fish, as he is pretty large. Below is a picture I found online of a Boesemani Rainbow eating a Neon Tetra.

 

[Byron]

The rainbowfish are one possibility as others have certainly demonstrated. The gourami are another; I have watched Blue Gourami (same species as 3-spot so same aggressive nature) easily circle and eat a neon in the store tank.

 

[Lajos_Detari]

Just a quick one.
Usually the biggest fish that has the biggest mouth is the one that is eating them...

Next is, any fish that has mouth that is big enough to fit the Neon into its mouth will eat them.

 

[Colin_T]

I know for a fact that M. boesemani will eat cardinal tetras. We had 50 cardinals in a 6ft tank and added 20 wild caught boesemani that were about 2 inches long (the cardinals were about 1 inch long). The first day they were fine but the second day all the cardinals were hiding in the corner. The rainbows had divided into 2 groups and one group was making a wall of fish to stop the cardinals escaping, while the second group went in and attacked and ate the cardinals.

I have seen the same behaviour in a marine fish called a tailor that rounded up a group of smaller fish and had them trapped in a bay. Half the tailor created a wall that stopped the small fish escaping while the remaining fish went in and ripped the little fish apart.

 

[rr20981n]

I know for a fact that M. boesemani will eat cardinal tetras. We had 50 cardinals in a 6ft tank and added 20 wild caught boesemani that were about 2 inches long (the cardinals were about 1 inch long). The first day they were fine but the second day all the cardinals were hiding in the corner. The rainbows had divided into 2 groups and one group was making a wall of fish to stop the cardinals escaping, while the second group went in and attacked and ate the cardinals.

I have seen the same behaviour in a marine fish called a tailor that rounded up a group of smaller fish and had them trapped in a bay. Half the tailor created a wall that stopped the small fish escaping while the remaining fish went in and ripped the little fish apart.

Thank You so very much for your input. I'm not sure if I should return the 11 tetras

 

[Colin_T]

how about moving them or the rainbows into the other tank?

 

[rr20981n]

how about moving them or the rainbows into the other tank?

Unfortunately, I don't have another tank. Currently, it's just a 75g tank and a 10g hospital tank

 

[CassCats]

id move the tetras to the 10g temporarily until you can get a 20 gallon for them.

Its better than them ending up as an expensive snack

 

[Retired Viking]

You could look into a tank divider if they make one for you tanks size.

 

[LostBear]

I know for a fact that M. boesemani will eat cardinal tetras. We had 50 cardinals in a 6ft tank and added 20 wild caught boesemani that were about 2 inches long (the cardinals were about 1 inch long). The first day they were fine but the second day all the cardinals were hiding in the corner. The rainbows had divided into 2 groups and one group was making a wall of fish to stop the cardinals escaping, while the second group went in and attacked and ate the cardinals.

I have seen the same behaviour in a marine fish called a tailor that rounded up a group of smaller fish and had them trapped in a bay. Half the tailor created a wall that stopped the small fish escaping while the remaining fish went in and ripped the little fish apart.

WHAT!

They're horrible!

 

[LostBear]

Thank You so very much for your input. I'm not sure if I should return the 11 tetras or let them be a feeder fish in the tank.

Don't you DARE let them be feeder fish (you MONSTER! )

Stick them in an envelope and send them to me! Seriously though - I don't know how you could even consider that when it's fish you've loved and cared for. If you'd bought them as feeder fish I would have thought it was a bit naff, but those poor little things have been with you a while. I don't know how you can even think it. I know it's nature's way etc, but it's still horrible.

 

[Byron]

I'm not casting blame on anyone, just noting fact...this is the sort of thing that happens when one does not do reliable research before acquiring a particular fish species, or one listens to store staff who usually don't have a clue. Years ago I had a male Betta and it easily ate neon tetra; I learned the hard way that Betta are not community fish. I've had other fish that were supposed to be peaceful, and they became such terrors I had to euthanize them because I had no tanks where they could go. I gave a group of tetras away once, same issue, real terrors out of the blue.

 

[EllRog]

It's not wild caught and I don't think it's a pure Glossolepis incisus. It's pretty skinny and is certainly big enough to eat neons, so are the Melanotaenia boesemani. As a general rule you don't keep rainbowfish with small tetras because most rainbows will eat small fish.

If the fish only eats frozen food then stop feeding that and offer other types of food. Rainbows need lots of plant matter in their diet. Duckweed is a good plant to grow in tanks with rainbowfish.

----------------
The rainbowfish need water with a GH above 250ppm and a pH above 7.0.
The guppies and platies need water with a GH around 200ppm and a pH above 7.0.

The other fish you listed come from water with a GH below 150ppm and a pH below 7.0.

@PheonixKingZ Colin is suggesting Duckweed and i cant see a comment from you saying how you hate it