Skeleton Fish

[Starvinmarvin]

Last night i couldn't find one of my platys anywhere, after a long time searching i came across half of a platy head and the rest of him was just bones, you could see his whole spine and everything (disgusting)!!!!

The thing is i found my other platy dead as well, they seemed fine to me a few days ago, it seems weird to me that they both died, i don't know whether they just dropped dead or whether they were bullied to death or whether one of the platys was eaten alive and the other was pecked, i just don't know what has happened.

One thing i have noticed though, my rainbow fish is chasing another rainbow around the tank all the time and now and again it will chase other fish, it even chasing my blue rams now and again, rainbow are peaceful so i dont know why it is behaving like this, i'm not sure whether that fish could be the culprit?

My small angelfish is only about 1" and it keeps himself to himself, my gourami's are big softies and my rams never chase any other fish but themselves.

I'm just trying to work out what has happened here because if they were bullied to death or eaten alive then i need to find out what is going on!!!


Oh i just want to add something, i have only been feeding my fish once a day is this ok? another thing i thought yesterday was that maybe i'm not feeding them enough and they were hungry and perhaps eate the fish because of that?

From today i am going to feed them twice per day.

 

[nmonks]

Well, one thing you can be sure of, your fish weren't "eaten alive". When a fish dies, any plecs or loaches will quickly find the carcass and dig in. Invariably, they go for the guts first. Presumably, the liver is the richest part of the fish in terms of nutrition, and they make sure to get that before any other fish comes along to steal away this lucky find. It doesn't matter how well you feed your plecs and loaches... if something dies, they'll go for it. It's in their nature. Kind of like potato chips and humans. We don't need them, but stick them in front of us, and we'll eat them!

You have a big tank (240 l) with a nice variety of fish that shouldn't be a problem, at least not yet. I fear the angel will eventually attack the guppies, but that doesn't always happen so you may be lucky. Anyway, that aside, I can't see any obvious problems. For now, I'd do a water test (check pH and nitrites, if nothing else) and if that's OK, put it down to bad luck. Let things alone before adding any new fish, just to see if anything else happens. In a few weeks time, if everything is fine, go buy some more platies if you want.

Cheers,

Neale

 

[dwarfgourami]

When a fish dies, any plecs or loaches will quickly find the carcass and dig in. Invariably, they go for the guts first. Presumably, the liver is the richest part of the fish in terms of nutrition, and they make sure to get that before any other fish comes along to steal away this lucky find

I have just been watching an old David Attenborough programme where grizzly bear do the same with salmons.

 

[chibi]

I suggest feeding them 2 times a day as much food as they can eat in a minute. I actually don't think the angel will bully the guppies if they grow up with little fish. I had a baby angelfish that grew up with little fish and he was fine when he grew up. I bought a full-grown and he ate my neons. I can't guarentee it, though.