# Half eaten fish.



## raeven (May 12, 2011)

So I woke up this morning with my boyfriend telling me we have a problem, and it seems he might be right. We found a half eaten glowlight tetra in the back of the tank.

We've only had our tank (45 gallons) for two and a half weeks, so we're still getting to know the personalities of the fish that came with it, along with a few extras we bought afterwards. We test the water regularly and do 10 gallon water changes once a week, maybe twice last week to solve our kh being a bit high.

This is now our fourth fish we know of that has died. Two of them were small angelfish, one of those just up and vanished. The second might have had a water change shock coming from the store into our tank. The other one we lost was a cherry barb, although we later found out they do best in a group of three, and we had one extra, so we're going with the assumption that the others three probably killed it off and left no evidence.


I'll give you a list of all the types of fish we have so hopefully we can narrow down who the culprit is.

Sunset sword
sunset platy
kribemsis chichlid
black ghost knife
blue gourami (we think it's a blue anyways)
redtail shark
whiptail cat
5 rummy nose tetras
4 leopard danios
3 cory cats
4 apple snails
5 shrimp (don't know what kind, but I doubt they did it)
yoyo loach
fruit tetra
6 black neon tetras
6 neons
10 pork chop rasboras
4 african dwarf frogs
3 cherry barbs
an angelfish
10 glowlight tetras
pleco
2 guppies

I think that's it....

I know our numbers are a -little- on the high side for our sized tank, although I have been told it should be fine since a lot like to chill at the bottom or against the sides, and the schooling fish like to be clustered together.

If you've had any experiences with any types of these fish eating some of your others, I'd be glad to hear some feedback so we can figure out what we need to do. Thanks very much.

Edit: I actually think it might have been the swordtail instead. I haven't seen him yet today, and he's usually hanging around the middle of the tank...Major boo.


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## target (Apr 21, 2010)

Depending on how big your black ghost knife is I would say he could be the culprit. He will also get too big for that tank.


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

I think I'll have to keep an eye on him then. He does hang out in that back corner a lot, but he also keeps to himself most of the time, too.


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## -DC- (Apr 21, 2010)

black ghost knife would be my first guess as well


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

Specter (BGK's name) is just a little guy at this point. No more than three inches. Can they really do that much damage at this size?


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## King-eL (Apr 21, 2010)

Black ghost knife is a nocturnal predator. You will soon need a large tank for it in the future. It will get up to 12-15 inches in 1.5 years. 18 inches in 5 years and will hit 21 inches max.

Another culprit is the african claw frog as they prey on small fish.


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## Rastapus (Apr 21, 2010)

Yes, agreed the Ghost knife could be your reason, clawed frog unlikely as they would likely just swallow your fish.


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## wsl (Apr 21, 2010)

The black ghost knife would be my first guess as well.


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

Sounds like Specter is the one I gotta worry about then. That sucks cause he's one cool fish.

On a side note, it's -VERY- doubtful it's the dwarf frogs. I don't think they're the clawed type mentioned above. They're tiny and if they ever ate that much their bellies would be quite swollen I imagine.

Thanks for all the imput. Now it's time to figure out what to do to keep this from happening again...


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## `GhostDogg´ (Apr 22, 2010)

Specter gets my vote.
Don't count out the gourami, I've seen a few of mine eat smaller fish.
Most of your smaller fish "headstand" when they sleep, this makes it very easy for fish to snap them up.
Small angels are on the fragile side, when they get full size they may start picking off the lil guys too.


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## Danw (Feb 26, 2011)

the Black ghost knife did it. i would bet. if you want to save as many lives as possible move the BGK. or the tetras. tetras are natural food for black ghost knives. This is how multiple tank syndrome starts...im on to 11!


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## Saffire (Apr 26, 2010)

Hang on here... you mean to tell me you have (my rough count) 73 fish in a 45 gallon tank? Wow, that's a LOT of fish for that tank. 

My best guess is it just died because. Who ate it? Well, any one or a combination of the fish in the tank probably ate it. Heck, my plecos love nothing more than a fish dying. The only thing mine don't eat are the bones so that's the only way I know something died.

I have found that tanks will adjust themselves. If you have too many fish they will die until the fish stock is where it should be for that tank, unless, of course, you know what you're doing and keep on top of everything. But, honestly, I'd expect a few more of your fish to die in the next coming weeks. It happens, especially depending on where you purchased your fish from.


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## Discus (Apr 23, 2010)

highly likely it is the black ghost knife but I would haft to see the fish. If it happens again put a picture of the dead fish up. For all we know the fish could of got stuck in the filter and then shot out. lol


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## funkycat (Nov 3, 2010)

I agree, although losing a couple fish in the first two weeks might be considered normal, especially if you're stocking that many fish in a 45g over 2 weeks time, thats adding fish pretty fast, you might not have enough bacteria in your filter to keep up. 
You might wanna keep an eye on your shrimp to, the Ghost or yoyo loach might be looking to snap em up for lunch soon.


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

I think we're gonna end up doing the multi-tanks too Danw lol


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

I know we do have quite a lot of fish. The tank came with most of them. Heck, we just sold about 18 last week. FAR too many rasboras.

Our bacteria is all fine and dandy. It was a used tank and the gravel and filter came with all that around it. We also kept a good deal of the water, so I doubt it has anything to do with that.

I don't think the fish died just because. We only had him for a week which we got from Island Pet Unlimited. A couple friends of mine work there (one left recently), and I hear it's a very good place to get livestock. As for the bones, they completely disappear. Something definitely eats them, and quick. Or it could be a combination of all the fish finding a quick and easy meal.

We're still planning to sell some more, just because we know there's quite a few in there. But that's going to have to happen at some point next week. We're also going to stock up on some plants to give some more hiding places for some of the fish. Our redtail is out in the open lately, and he's becoming a little territorial.


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## LikeItLow (Jan 11, 2011)

i agree witheveryone else. its gotta be the BGK. i never had small fish when my ghosty was that young but now that hes just over 8 inches he devours the entire fish. bones and all. its odd that you found half the fish tho...mabey your ghost just got full half way through lol. also your ghost will be fine for a few years in that tank. mine was in a 29 gallon for almost 5 years and finally decided to give him a bigger home.


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## monkE (Aug 4, 2010)

Though i've never had a BGK, i have had many gouramais and red-tail sharks and i have seen quite a lot of aggression out of both of those. That is a ton of fish for that sized of tank and i agree that no one dies "just because". The tetras are on the bottom of the food chain so it will be hard to narrow it down to anyone above them. 

A dying fish in that heavily populated tank should disappear pretty quickly so i'm not suprised that you're not finding bones

Could you post some pics of the tank?


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## raeven (May 12, 2011)

I'll definitely be putting up some pictures of our tank soonish. Our camera is currently busted though, so we have to grab a new one first.

And yeah, it is quite a lot of fish. We didn't realize just how many were in there until after we sold some of them. We're gonna to back next week and thin down our tank a little more to get it down to a more healthy level.


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