Oh The Panic

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eduller

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Oh man. I just fed the community tank, went to wash my hands, and came back to what I thought was one of my dwarf gouramis (who has never been anything but peaceful) EATING one of my cories. I had a split second of ohmigodwhatdoido?? Yeah, he was not eating the cory. The cory had burrowed himself into a pile of shrimp pellet, and the gourami was just cleaning off his back. I think that took at least a month off my lifespan. I almost threw up.
 
Sometimes, funny and alarming scenarios pop up in aquariums. One time, I thought my molly was pecking at one of my Mystery snails, turns out he was eating the algae on his back XD
 
I once thought by the looks of it that one of my otos was dead in the corner and was in a sorry state of decomposition.  Turned out with was just a piece of decomposing algae wafer that looked like an oto.  Boy, was I relieved after I fished out what turned out to be the pc of algae wafer.
 
Yikes! Fortunately I have not had any shocks such as you have described. One of my conditions when I started my 29 gal wad that all the fish had to get along. I couldn't stand it if my fish started to eat one another. And particularly not my cories. Glad your Cory is fine.
 
Isn't it funny how we all find these stories amusing, when ever something silly goes on in my tank I keep it to myself as the whole house hold Barr my youngest daughter already thinks I'm the crazy fish wife!
 
I'm sure a lot of us have had the oh god my shrimp has died moment...
 
Don't even get me started on shrimp! I put 10 cherry shrimp in my 54 gallon tank 2 weeks ago, and I have only ever seen one since then! I assume they got eaten, but I can't see the large ones even coming close to fitting in the mouth of anything in there. Especially because the large one I see occasionally just walks around like he owns the place and nobody bothers him. But the tank is pretty densely planted and it's a corner tank, so it's not easy to see way in the back corner.
 
Or maybe I'm seeing more than one shrimp and they all just look alike. Because, really, they all just look alike.
 
eduller said:
Oh man. I just fed the community tank, went to wash my hands, and came back to what I thought was one of my dwarf gouramis (who has never been anything but peaceful) EATING one of my cories. I had a split second of ohmigodwhatdoido?? Yeah, he was not eating the cory. The cory had burrowed himself into a pile of shrimp pellet, and the gourami was just cleaning off his back. I think that took at least a month off my lifespan. I almost threw up.
Glad all is well.  What a scare!
 
Didn't I read online that the gourami can actually remove the slime coat and the tank mates die as a result?   I didn't see anyone mention this, in this thread.  That was the first thing I thought when you wrote 'cleaning off his back.'   Is this not so? 
 
My moment was when I put in some young neon tetras into my tank with adult ghost shrimp. These shrimp were near two inches in length. I guess they thought the neons were feeders cos in seconds on shrimp had grabbed on to a poor fish.  I separated them in seconds but the neon was half gone. The next day he was gone
 
Freedom said:
 
Didn't I read online that the gourami can actually remove the slime coat and the tank mates die as a result?   I didn't see anyone mention this, in this thread.  That was the first thing I thought when you wrote 'cleaning off his back.'   Is this not so? 
 
 
WHAT??
 
Okay I just obsessively googled about this, and the only thing I've found is about loaches and plecos eating the slime coat off gouramis, not the other way around. Do I need to panic about this? He was most definitely 100% just eating the shrimp pellet off the cory because when it was gone, he moved on to picking some algae off the plants.
 
eduller said:
WHAT??
 
Okay I just obsessively googled about this, and the only thing I've found is about loaches and plecos eating the slime coat off gouramis, not the other way around. Do I need to panic about this? He was most definitely 100% just eating the shrimp pellet off the cory because when it was gone, he moved on to picking some algae off the plants.
 
Maybe it is specific to the pink kissing gourami (I rescued one, currently in my larger tank).  This statement shows up on several pages about them.  Here is one, scroll down to 'tank mates:'     http://freshaquarium.about.com/cs/anabantids2/p/kissinggourami.htm
 
Okay I definitely do not have kissing gourami. I feel better.
 

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