# What killed my fish?



## KuroKyoto (Dec 9, 2008)

Not sure if this is the right forum, but anyway here it goes.
I bought a healthy weather loach one day, brought it home, and it was still fine. The next day, I noticed part of it's 'back fin' was missing. But it was just fine. The next day when I got home, more of it's fin was gone. I had left for the weekened and when I got back, something had eaten into it's back. It's fin was completley gone and it had a huge dent in it. It was breathing heavily. I had seen a fish recover from a serious injury once so I didn't want to flush it. Well, it died the next morning.
But I can't figure out what ate it. I have a pictus catfish, two clown loaches, an irridecent shark, rope fish, ghost knife, pleco, some feeder guppies we can't get rid of and a green tiger barb. 
The shark stays in one area and is not agressive at all. The most he's eaten of my fish are the feeder guppies. The pictus catfish is also not agressive. It chases my clowns occasionaly but that's it. I don't know about the tiger barb. I heard they ate fins but most specifically long fins. The clown loaches are obviously not agressive. I've only seen my ropefish attack a fish once and that's when it was already injured by a prawn, which I no longer have. The ghost knife however is sort of agressive. My clownloaches always lay with it in the decrotive pipe thing I've got, but it sometimes 'nips' at them and chases them away. It also does this to the pictus when it gets too close. The weather loach did seem to stay near the ghost knife's cage but I read that they're okay with other fish as long as they can't fit them in their mouth or they're not other ghost knifes. And it's never tried to attack the guppies either. I highly doubt the pleco had anything to do with this since he remains it one spot most of the time. 
Can someone tell me what ate my fish?
Please reply as quick as possible since I am in school right now and only have another 20 minutes or so before I have to switch classes.


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## Guest (Mar 31, 2009)

i thinks the tiger barb. below is an extract from Wikipedia.

The tiger barb is an active schooling fish that is usually kept in groups of five or more. They are often aggressive in numbers less than 5 and are known fin nippers. If you only keep two in a tank, one will eventually chase the other fish. Semi-aggressive fish, they form a pecking order in the pack which they may extend to other fish, giving them a reputation for nipping at the fins of other fish, especially if they are wounded or injured. They are thus not recommended for tanks with slower, more peaceful fishes such as bettas, gouramis, angelfish and others with long flowing fins. They do however work well with many fast moving fish such as danios, platys and most catfish. 

hope this helps.


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## GupLove (Mar 25, 2009)

Poor guy! Hugs, I know how that feels!


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## KuroKyoto (Dec 9, 2008)

Zakk said:


> i thinks the tiger barb. below is an extract from Wikipedia.
> 
> The tiger barb is an active schooling fish that is usually kept in groups of five or more. They are often aggressive in numbers less than 5 and are known fin nippers. If you only keep two in a tank, one will eventually chase the other fish. Semi-aggressive fish, they form a pecking order in the pack which they may extend to other fish, giving them a reputation for nipping at the fins of other fish, especially if they are wounded or injured. They are thus not recommended for tanks with slower, more peaceful fishes such as bettas, gouramis, angelfish and others with long flowing fins. They do however work well with many fast moving fish such as danios, platys and most catfish.
> 
> hope this helps.


Thanks. I was really thinking it was my ghost knife since it seems the most agressive. But that comes to another question. Why isn't it attacking my other fish, then?


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## Bymer (Aug 22, 2008)

there is a a huge probability that its the ghost knife fish. 
ghost knifes by some sources are belived to be blind or partialy blind. 
the emit very weak electic curent that helps them orientate in the water. 
usually during the day they are neutral and mind there own business. about an hour or so after the lights go off, they become very aggressive toward the other fish. Its during the night when the aggression usually brakes out.

i had the same problem as you, and could not figure it out for a while, until i staid up late a couple of night and saw what is going on. 

The interesting thing is if they detect light(like from a flash light) the settle down instantly. 

I wasn't able to figure out a way to fix this problem back in the day so i just got rid of the ghost knife fish. 






KuroKyoto said:


> Thanks. I was really thinking it was my ghost knife since it seems the most agressive. But that comes to another question. Why isn't it attacking my other fish, then?


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## SouthernBelle23 (Mar 24, 2009)

Tiger Barbs are nippy, but I don't see them taking a huge chunk out of a fish over and over. I would bet on the Ghost Knife. Maybe the Weather Loach was just the one who got in the GK's way....maybe everyone else is either too fast or hides well.


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