Who Could Of Done This?

[Hmongol]

I have a 15 gallon tank with 5 red eye tetra, 4 fancy guppies, 3 ghost shrimps and 1 algae eater.

Last night after feeding my fish some dried blood worms I noticed that my red and blue fancy guppy was in the same spot for an hour. I thought it was fine so I went to sleep.
That morning I woke up and I saw the red guppy's entire tail eaten... I rushed him to the hospital tank but he eventually died after trying to swim for a few hours. Than I double check all my guppies and that's when I noticed that my blue guppy (the same one who was standing still with the red) was sorta drifting lightly and I saw that there was a bite mark on the bottom of his tail.
He's now resting in the hospital tank but I was very surprised he is still alive because that wound looks very nasty... I hope that he will last tonight.

Here are some pictures I took to show and hopefully someone might give me a better clue on which one is the culprit.
*note* I also have 1 very mean and bossy red eye tetra that constantly chases the entire group or tetras around and I'm guessing he might be it. Weird thing is that why now? I've had them for almost 3 weeks now.
plus this thing looks like a Piranha bite.

 

[StandbySetting]

When you say Algae eater, which species specifically? Chinese Algae Eater? If so I'd definitely pin the blame on that.

 

[fluttermoth]

It could be one of the red eyed tetra too though; some of them can be very nippy, even when kept in a group.

I think you need to sit yourself down next to your tank for a few hours and see if you can catch the culprit at it.

 

[mislisa]

When you say Algae eater, which species specifically? Chinese Algae Eater? If so I'd definitely pin the blame on that.

+1

my first tank was a little 20g from my sister that had an older siamese algae eater in it (about 3-4 inches).... it would regularly eat my corys. took me a while to figure out why they were disappearing!

 

[anon02]

I dont think any of your fish have the teeth to inflict that sort of damage, can you be sure that it isn`t a flesh eating bacterial infection ?

 

[StandbySetting]

I've just been looking through your pictures again and spotted this:

It's Gyrinocheilus sp. and they will hold onto a fish with their mouth and rasp away at the flesh, they can top 11 Inches.

 

[Tizer]

When you say Algae eater, which species specifically? Chinese Algae Eater? If so I'd definitely pin the blame on that.

+1

my first tank was a little 20g from my sister that had an older siamese algae eater in it (about 3-4 inches).... it would regularly eat my corys. took me a while to figure out why they were disappearing!

Siamese Algae Eaters are not agressive, Chinese however, are. Standby has hit the nail on the head.

 

[mislisa]

... it must have been a chinese one then... it was years ago, so i don't remember too well! it was one of the golden ones...

 

[Hmongol]

Thanks for all your help and unfortunately he died over night.
I really thought it was the mean bossy red eye tetra too but I think you're right Anon02, I doubt any of tetras are capable of ripping flesh cleanly like that.
Thanks standbysetting I didn't know what they were called, at Petsmart he was just labeled under "algae eater". I'll do some research on them and see if I can figure something out.

Also can someone tell me why it happened all in the same night, my red guppy was eaten up on the tail and than my blue had that shark bite mark.
As I stated above, those two were the only guppies standing still that night after I fed them and those two were the only one dead. Could it be that they were too weak to defend themselves because they were sick?

 

[Hmongol]

In case anyone was wondering, I donated my Chinese Algae Eater to a local pet store. I did a lot of research about CAE and many many people say that they often kill other fish for the slime coat.
I just can't believe that a Petsmart employee would recommend this guy for my peaceful community tank.