What One Of My Fish Is Eating My Other Fish?

[DazzaClio]

Hi,

I recently bought some fish from a young boy who didnt want them anymore.

I would say they are all quite young as they are quite small, they are :

1x Tiger Oscar
2x Jack Dempsey
1x Firemouth
1x Kribensis
4x Tiger Barbs

I put them all with some of my Tiger Barbs and they have all been fine so far, i woke up this morning and they were all fine after i had breakfast i checked on them again and one of my Tiger Barbs was dead at the bottom.

He had his eyes missing, fins nipped and a hole in the bottom of him and theres nothing there he was empty.

So what fish do you think is doing this?

Thanks Darren.

 

[markandhisfish]

how big are these fish? and what size is your tank?

 

[KittyKat]

Oscars and Jack Dempseys will eat tiger barb sized fish easily. I hope you have a huge (5-6 ft) tank for those.

 

[DazzaClio]

The Oscar is the biggest hes around 3 inchs.
Firemouth, Jack Dempseys and Kribensis are around 2-3 inchs.
The Tiger Barbs are around just over an inch.

I havent been able to measure them very easily so those sizes are estimates.

The tank is around a 100 Litre i know everyone will probley say thats to small etc etc but i might take the Tiger barbs out and its not permanent ive just got them in there to try and grow them abit before they go in my other tank with my other Oscars the biggest is about 10 and a half inches but dont want to put them in there yet as they will either eat them or kill them.

The tank they will be going in is around a 550 Litre, 141 Us Gallons etc.

Thanks Again Darren.

 

[KittyKat]

The Oscar is the biggest hes around 3 inchs.
Firemouth, Jack Dempseys and Kribensis are around 2-3 inchs.
The Tiger Barbs are around just over an inch.

The problem is that all of your fish are still quite aggressive, even when young, so it could have been almost any of them.. but maybe the barb died of natural causes and then got chomped?

 

[DazzaClio]

The Oscar is the biggest hes around 3 inchs.
Firemouth, Jack Dempseys and Kribensis are around 2-3 inchs.
The Tiger Barbs are around just over an inch.

The problem is that all of your fish are still quite aggressive, even when young, so it could have been almost any of them.. but maybe the barb died of natural causes and then got chomped?

Yeah i totally agree i didnt really want all of them off the young boy but if i didnt give them a home im not to sure what would have happened to them as he really didnt want any of them.

I also agree he may have died from natural causes and then got eaten.

Thanks Again Darren.

 

[Liam50]

the thing is when ever you see freshwater fish eating something they don't rip at it like saltwater sharks etc they generally will eat the whole thing in one or they won't bother. so i don't think the fish are killing the tiger barbs. check your water is what i would do.

 

[twodoctors]

I foolishly got a jack dempsey at one point with my tiger barbs. The next morning I was missing 1 tiger barb. The jack was only about 3" at the time. Had to get rid of the jack.

Problem with tiger barbs is that they sleep overnight so even though they are quick and nimble during the day they will get eaten in their sleep.

Mine was (probably) swallowed whole as I didn't see any evidence of body/bones etc.