Will Plecos And Other Catfish Eat Live Guppies?

[avenger2020]

I have a Pleco (very calm) in my tank, as well as another small catfish which the pet shop was calling a 'pegasus' (very darty). There were 2 guppies, 1 died. The second one seemed fine for a couple of days, and then I came home one day and it's fan was torn up, and it was really struggling. My wife got me away from the tank for a minute, by the time I came back the guppy was gone. Just dissapeared. Very strange.

 

[Darkstar]

Are you sure they said 'pegasus' and 'pangasius'?...for your sake, and the fishes, I hope not.

 

[xingumike]

Pleco won't have eaten no, unless it scavenged a dead/sick one

Pangasius = problem, BIG problem or perhaps you mean Pictus, again a very good hunter (and is 'darty') but doesn't have the same size issues

 

[smithrc]

Are you sure they said 'pegasus' and 'pangasius'?...for your sake, and the fishes, I hope not.

I was thinking the same... The plecs wont eat healthy fish... but a pangasius will.

 

[Darkstar]

Are you sure they said 'pegasus' and 'pangasius'?...for your sake, and the fishes, I hope not.

I was thinking the same... The plecs wont eat healthy fish... but a pangasius will.

not disputing your info Smithrc....but the pangasius I owned many years ago certainly never helped themselves to any of my fish, although to be fair I didn't stock anything as small as guppies but I'd be surpised to hear they'd eaten other fish...Anyway, I'm guessing if he has bought some pangasius then they're probably not much bigger than the guppies right now, so I'd of thought it would be doubtful as best.

 

[avenger2020]

Are you sure they said 'pegasus' and 'pangasius'?...for your sake, and the fishes, I hope not.

I was thinking the same... The plecs wont eat healthy fish... but a pangasius will.

not disputing your info Smithrc....but the pangasius I owned many years ago certainly never helped themselves to any of my fish, although to be fair I didn't stock anything as small as guppies but I'd be surpised to hear they'd eaten other fish...Anyway, I'm guessing if he has bought some pangasius then they're probably not much bigger than the guppies right now, so I'd of thought it would be doubtful as best.

The guppy looked like it was pretty much on it's last breath, it was really struggling. At one point I thought it was dead until it started swimming again. I was just going to fish it out with a net before my wife got me away. I was away for a good hour, so it very well could have died.

They were clearly calling it a pegasus and not pangasius, and it's not supposed to get very big. The pegasus is only about 2.5 inches, and the pleco about 3. The guppy of course was much smaller

I live in Malaysia, so it could be some sort of mis-spelling of pangasius. But then again they have a section specifically for medium and bigger sized (young and adult) fish. Such as Arrowana which are very popular with the chinese community (something to do with Feng Shui). And these were in the same section as the much smaller fish.

I am going back to check, they usually put the scientific name on the tank along with the common name. I have also found in this part of the world the common names can be quite a bit different. The same way english is bastardized at times I guess.

 

[smithrc]

Are you sure they said 'pegasus' and 'pangasius'?...for your sake, and the fishes, I hope not.

I was thinking the same... The plecs wont eat healthy fish... but a pangasius will.

not disputing your info Smithrc....but the pangasius I owned many years ago certainly never helped themselves to any of my fish, although to be fair I didn't stock anything as small as guppies but I'd be surpised to hear they'd eaten other fish...Anyway, I'm guessing if he has bought some pangasius then they're probably not much bigger than the guppies right now, so I'd of thought it would be doubtful as best.

I've never had one - but assumed Large catfish + Guppy = easy meal

I've just put 2 Pim Pictus in our 350L to aid population control with our endlers.... down to 2 now - from approx 50 .