Killer Fish?

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gypsyjunior

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I have only been keeping tropical fish for the past year or so. When I set up I bought a plec which is now really too big for my tank. Lately my smaller fish have been being attacked and this morning my one home bred mollie, who is a few months old was dead. Could it be the plec?
 
Hi, I have mainly mollies, clown loach and gauramies. The tank is only a 2ft tank.

Its very unlikely it was the plec, the vast majority of plecos are scavengers only, they are not predators. Agressive ones may try and suck the slime coat off slime bodied fish, but this is uncommon and is unlikely to kill the fish. They may scavenge off a dead body of a fish but thats it. What type of plec do you have?
Gourami's can be pretty agressive though depending on the type, what type/s of gouami's do you have and do you know their genders? Have you actually witnessed any agression amoungst your fish?
Water quality problems and/or desease are the no.1 cause of death amoungst aquarium fish. How many gallons is the tank and what are the exact numbers of the fish you have? If you don't know the gallons, post the tanks dimensions. Do you have an accurate water quality test kit for ammonia, nitrites and nitrates?
 
Have you seen the plec atack your fish before? I've never known a plec to attack fish. But as already suggested it could the Gourami thats doing it.
Sorry if I sound patronising but is it definately a plec? because sucking loaches can be nasty little things and if its a sucking loach and not a plec it could be that, especially in a 2ft tank.
 
i had two get rid of 2 honey gouramies they were so aggressive even towards one anothere. i bought two and within a month one was 3 times the size as the other one. so it xould well be them ;)

luke
 
Hi, sorry I have'nt replyed to you all but have been away. I have now lost 4 of the new half grown mollies I introduced to the tank about a month ago. Do you think they could have had a disease when I bought them? I was given the tank about a year ago by a friend and the large gourami came with it and has always seemed very placid but recently he has been chasing the fish around, would he have become aggressive all of a sudden? If so what can I do about it. I am treating the water with PROTOZIN which is what my friend advised. Sorry if I seem dim but I have no experience of keeping tropical fish and we all have to learn.
Although the pleci is perhaps not being a killer I think he is now too large for the tank and the shop said to return him when that happened so I think I will have to do that. What should I do before I buy anymore fish to avoid losing them and should I leave it for awhile before I buy anymore? Will be very grateful for any advice.
 
What type of gourami do you have do you know? It could well be desease/parasites that is killing the fish off, but getting the gourami ID'd is also important. How many gallons is this tank and does it have suitable filtration and heating (what is the temp)? How do you go about cleaning the tank and how often and do you use dechlorinator/water conditioner?
 
What type of gourami do you have do you know? It could well be desease/parasites that is killing the fish off, but getting the gourami ID'd is also important. How many gallons is this tank and does it have suitable filtration and heating (what is the temp)? How do you go about cleaning the tank and how often and do you use dechlorinator/water conditioner?

I don't know the type of gourami. The tank is only 10gallons and the filtration and heating are fine. temp is 27c. The tank is cleaned once every two weeks and I take about 8gallons of water out and treat the replacement water.
 
What type of gourami do you have do you know? It could well be desease/parasites that is killing the fish off, but getting the gourami ID'd is also important. How many gallons is this tank and does it have suitable filtration and heating (what is the temp)? How do you go about cleaning the tank and how often and do you use dechlorinator/water conditioner?

I don't know the type of gourami. The tank is only 10gallons and the filtration and heating are fine. temp is 27c. The tank is cleaned once every two weeks and I take about 8gallons of water out and treat the replacement water.

You should check out this link for Id'ing for your gourami;

http://www.fishforums.net/index.php?showforum=39

Did the sick fish show any unusual symptoms before they died whether behavioral or physical etc?
 
Thanks for the link. I am pretty sure it is a golden gourami and is now about 4ins long. He does seem to be getting more territorial and is only chasing the newer fish. I will be upset if I have to get rid of him - is there an alternative like only buying one or two larger fish?
The fish that died showed no symptoms - were just dead in the mornings. The only one that showed anything wrong was a mollie that seemed to be stood on it's head but still alive for a day or so.
 
Thanks for the link. I am pretty sure it is a golden gourami and is now about 4ins long. He does seem to be getting more territorial and is only chasing the newer fish. I will be upset if I have to get rid of him - is there an alternative like only buying one or two larger fish?
The fish that died showed no symptoms - were just dead in the mornings. The only one that showed anything wrong was a mollie that seemed to be stood on it's head but still alive for a day or so.

Yeah if the golden gourami is a male, it get'll particularly agressive as it matures- a 10gal is too small for it as well. If you upgrade the tank to a 25-30gallon or more long tank and focus a lot on making it very planted and get the gourami more of its own kind (depending on what gender it is), you can keep this fish very well in this kind of tank set up; but otherwise if you can't upgrade the tank i'd advise rehoming it as it'll only get worse as time goes by and it won't be happy living in a 10gal for its entire life.

If the molly couldn't control its balance/direction in the water then that is most likely a swimbladder disorder, can be caused by numerous problems from stress, physical damage to the swimbladder, internal bacterial infection, constipation etc...How long did you acclimatise the mollys to the tank for and how did you go about it exactly?
 
I left the mollies in the bag for about an hour as I had been told by the shop then let them into a dark tank which I left in the dark for the night. Boy do I sound dim but I am probably listening to information from young shop assistants who know no more than me. I should take more time to read about things before I jump in.
 
are the clown loach in the 10 gall because ideally thats too small so they may get aggressive due to cramped space
 
are the clown loach in the 10 gall because ideally thats too small so they may get aggressive due to cramped space

Yeah the clown loach are in the 10gall. they seem quite happy and I have had them for awhile. I have been getting all my advice from the shop where I buy the fish and they gave me the okay on everything I've done.
 

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