Missing fish

[fishRmylife]

I bought a pleco a few days ago and put it in with my cardinal tetras, black neons, and danios, I woke up this morning to 3 missing cardinals and 2 missong danios, my tank lid is preatty much sealed, no way fish can jump out, or there is no wqay they can get sucked into my filter. I have a feeling my pleco chowed down on them, is this possible? My pleco is well fed since I bought it. I am very confused to where my fish went

 

[colesea]

1) Remove all the ornaments from your tank. Believe it or not, not all dead fish float. Sometimes the bodies may drift behind a rock or decoration, or actually sometimes work their way underneath these things.

2) The pleco may have very well eaten 'em. What species and what size pleco? Sailfin plecos and common plecos have been known to be pretty omniverous. Cardnial tetras sleep on the bottom of the tank, when the nocturn pleco is most likely to be out and about looking for chow. Sure enough, tetra is a better meal than algae waffer anyday, so the pleco could have very likely noshed on them.

~~Colesea

 

[fishRmylife]

I dont have any rocks or ornaments, just a few live plants. My pleco is about 7" i took all the plants out to looks for the fish, but no luck finidng them. Ive never had a problem with fish dying, my water parimiters are all ok, so I guess it's time to take the pleco out.

 

[1979camaro]

well...if he ate all the others dont know why you would need to take him out...though from the looks of things, hes getting pretty big for that small of a tank

 

[Antwan]

I'm pretty sure your tanks are overcrowded. Do you tank the 1 in. of fish to 1 gal. rule literally?
Thats a big fish to put in with those small ones. What kind of pleco is that? Please excuse my bluntness.

 

[1979camaro]

the one in to one gal rule doesnt necessarily work...for example 30 inches of aggressive cichlids in a 30gal tank will be a disaster

KB

 

[fishRmylife]

its a common pleco, it was just in there temporarely, while I got him a 15 gallon and started cycling, this pleco I got from a friend because it was growing too big for his tank, and he was going to flush it, so i hurry up and got it from him.

 

[tetra girl]

plecos have been known to attach themselves to the sides to larger fish (eg discus) so it would not suprise me if he did eat your fish especially because of his size. too bad you werent just looking after it for your friend cause then you could get him to pay for your missing fish!

 

[Angelfish]

Id bet money that the pleco ate the fish. When I had my pleco, my pictus cat was a baby and the pleco would suck on the pictus as though trying to eat it. Danios and cardinals are small, a 7" pleco could easily have eaten them. You should probably separate them before more fish go missing.

 

[fishRmylife]

ok got them seperated, well actually sold it to my LFS, hes better off there anyways, maybe the next person who purchases him will know better not to buy a growing fish who cant accomodate him when he gets big, had to lecture my friend about that one.