Mysterious Neon Murders Of Old London Town

[Britfish]

Hi,

Almost every other morning, in my tank I find a perfectly stripped Neon skeleton? All my fish seem very peacefull, not any real fin nipping or anything?  Also slices of cucumber (about 1cm thick) dissapear overnight, rind and everything, gone!  Is that normal?

So the suspects are :- 2 Silver Sharks (2 inches long) 1 Redtail Shark (1.5in Long) 1 Male Betta (not aggressive at all) 14 (and decreasing) Neon Tetra, 5 Zebra Danio's, 1 Long Fin Danio, 1 Leopard Danio, 1 I think pearl danio, but he has a barbel on each side of his mouth? Looks like a sabretooth tiger? Anyay schools with the zebras. 2 Pleco (1.5 Inches long), 2 Bronze Cory's, 1 Albino Cory, 2 3-Spot Gourami, 2 Silver Mollies, 2 Mickey Mouse Platy's.  Its an enourmous tank!  Who is the killer? Did they fall or were they pushed?  Who has blood on their hands...er fins.  Please help!

 

[catfishmike]

i would try sneaking up on the tank at night and trying to watch the sharks and the betta.i've had both a betta and a red tailed shark that would come out and terrorize at night.a real shame too i liked that shark,got a nice trade on him though.

 

[Troy-N-Eli]

Ditto on that reply.  When we had problems w/ terrorists in the tank, the sneak attack w/ flashlights provided the identity of the culprits on each occasion.  It's hard to tell who the problem child might be.  On occasions that we thought we had it figured out, something strange would be discovered.  Best of luck on finding the attacker.

 

[colesea]

It's one of the plecos, I'll bet you a beer on that! *celebratesmiley*

One of my favorite stories came from a customer of mine when I first started at the LFS.

We were standing in front of the pleco tank when he related this to me:

His Pleco, a good 14", was eating neons like candy apparently.  He would buy at least two dozen for his tank (it was a large one), and of course one by one they'd start to disappear. Everything he had in the tank was "docile" and not big enough to swallow neons.

Apparently, when neons sleep, they sink. This is very common in most fish. They don't close their eyes and snore, but they go into this very, paralized, like state, sorta trance-like. Now most people have never seen their fish sleep (unless they're like me and got a photographers darkroom redbulb because well, they're a geek and wondered what fish look like sleeping. Night diving rocks too BTW...but I digress) because they turn the tank light out and go to bed.

So the neons would go to sleep and rest on the bottom of his tank. The Pleco, being a nocturnal sort who hid most of the time the tank light was on, but prowled the bottom of the tank with the lights off, sucking up everything it came across, including neons.  The Common Sailfin Pleco, the type most often seen and purchased at LFS, is somewhat omniverous. Not only do they like to rasp plant stuff and algae, but they will take meat when they can get it as well. Neons against the sucking maw of a 14" pleco? Notta chance!

He caught the culprit after a flashlight stakeout. He turned the tank off as per normal routine, but he did not leave the room, and left the door cracked slightly so the hall light provided just enough illumination for him to see movement. When the pleco came out of hiding, he turned on the flashlight and caught it in the act.

I find a redbulb method much better because you don't startle the fish when you use it, so you get more natural nighttime behaviors than a sudden flashlight or roomlight going on. Put the red bulb in a regular desklap socket, turn the tank light out par routine, and then sit back and watch.

I'm curious as to who it is.
~~Colesea

 

[eseow]

I would say the Plecos, too. They would eat a meaty so-called Neon morsel at night, since neons are sleepy fish at night. Plecos eat everything, not just algae like most people buy them for. They love blood worms, and I think in your case, Midnight snack Neons.

 

[Britfish]

Hi guys thanks for the advice, unfortunately it's going from bad too worse, last night I lost 5, yes 5 neons. They were all at different stages of being stripped of flesh, some completely skeletal, others complete and relatively untouched. I know it sounds a little odd but they all had their eyes missing?  :'(  One of the Plec's is looking a little plump?    Could they be suffering from some disease and being eaten afterwards?  All the other fish are still 100% healthy.
Im starting to think the little red light in the tank that I ofthought as the heater at night might be the eye of some sort of devilfish.  :-/

 

[Britfish]

*UPDATE*
I checked on my little fishes before leaving for work today, 2 of my neons are hugging the surface and have left the shoal, they are simming in a sort of zero g style, no real direction or motive.  They were fine last night?  A couple of other fish (silver sharks) etc are patiently waiting ound for them to die. I've done some reading on so called "neon tetra disease" and it seems similar to this, but this stated it took the neons a few weeks to die?  Aparently once this has occured in a tank it never really goes away!  Would this stop me keeping neons or all tetra's?  I hop it's not this!  What do you guys think?  I think the other fish are just eating the fallen?

The plot thickens.

 

[colesea]

Neon tetra disease has some othe signs as well. Faded color, a depigmented spot on the caudal peduncle that looks like tail rot, and as it progresses, I have seen fish with their entire rear end gone.  Strep is also a disease that affects lots of neons, and this makes the fish look like its face is melting away. I have seen neons and other tetras similiar to them seem to drop dead for no reason because of these two diseases.  They're tough to get rid of, and other fish are also likely to be infected. Wouldn't worry about it too much until you see at least one other species of fish afflicted.

Spring is also not a good time to purchase neons either. Tis the breeding season, and many of the fish sent by wholesalers may already be exhausted from a spawn and thus not survive very well. Also, newly hatched young don't fair transport well.

I'm sorry about your neon loss. But if you still want a tiny fish similar to these, there are others to choose from.  Glo-lite tetras look like neons, but they're orange. Blood-fin tetras are a touch bigger, better able to fend off a pleco.  Harliquin rasboras are a nice little schooler of black and orange.

I'm sorry to hear about your loss. Definately narrow down who the culprit is though.
~~Colesea

 

[Britfish]

Thanks colesea, so do you think it's a diease then, I had noticed the red fading on some of them?  Would make sense!  I'm gonna follow your advice and see what the alternatives are. You may still get your beer!