My Cardinals are disappearing! Post your thoughts here!

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lazarusthefishboy10

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Hello, all! Today I just came back from my beach house and 3 of my cardinals are missing. I have seen one of them, that was eaten, and it was not a pretty sight. My fish haven't been fed for four days, and I am starting to come to a conclusion that my other fish got very hungry and thought it was a great idea to eat a few of my tetras. Let me know what you think could've caused it. I am very sad because they looked amazing in a school of 5, but now there are only 2. And only the cardinals have disappeared. No other fish.
I have in this tank: 1 Electric Yellow Cichlid (male), 1 Pearl Gourami (male), 1 swordtail (female), 1 platy (male), 1 cory catfish, 1 YoYo Loach, 1 Zebra Danio (male), 1 bristle nose pleco (female), and 1 Flying Fox shark. And there is most likely a few swordtail fry hiding amongst the plants and vegetation.
The volume of my fish tank is 90 litres (25 gallons).
PH: 7.3 AMMONIA: 0ppm NITRITE: 0ppm NITRATE: 20ppm (which is normal)
Temperature is 23-24 degrees Celsius (73-75 degrees Faranheight)
well planted tank, and plenty of hiding places.
 
I'm far from expert, but I think a lot of cichlids can become aggressive if they aren't kept in groups with other members of their species.

If your yellow cichlid got hungry and attacked and ate one tetra, the chances are that the other hungry fish would have helped him out - and then they would have predated them further. Some of the fish you mention might be too big for him to kill. Others too fast, or have good hiding places eg the loach. Or one might just have died (natural causes) and the others scoffed it, and enjoyed it, so attacked the other two.

Could you put one of those slow release food tablets in the tank next time you go away?
 
I agree with above, and I would give away the cichlid as they don't make perfect tank mates for peaceful fish. I also would give away the swordtail, BN pleco, pearl gourami, flying fox as they need a 30 gallon tank.
Also give away the yo yo loach as they need a 40 gallon tank and a shoal of 6.
Give away also the zebra danio as they ideally need a 20-29 gallon long tank and a shoal of 6 or more (like corydoras)
When you give all of those away, get 5 more corydoras as they a shoaling species of fish and get more tetras.
 
I agree. You have too many fish for a 25g, and the wrong combination of fish species.

You have hard water fish (the yellow cichlid is a cichlid from the rift lakes, swordtail and platy are livebearers) and soft water fish (everything else). Some of these fish are shoaling and need a group. The 25g is not large enough for this.
 
I agree with the rest.

Electric Yellow Cichlid must be removed as it is an aggressive fish from Lake Malawi(Africa) and cannot be mixed with your peaceful South American and Asian fish.

Even Pearl Gourami can turn nasty at times. You have to monitor this fish.
 
I had to remove all my other fish when I add African Cichlids to my 55 gallon tank, they are aggressive and you do have a bad mix of fish. If you have soft water I would get rid of all the hard water fish like @Byron said. Since you like the look of the cardinal tetra add more to them at least 6 and maybe add to your cory as @Salty&Onion suggested.
 

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