# my bala's eyes have been plucked out! who did it?



## Community90 (Jan 22, 2011)

can a rubber-lipped pleco that is only about 3 inches long eat the eyes of a 4 inch bala shark.

i also have tin foil barbs...including a 5 inch larger one. Could they have eaten the eyes?

The eyes were eaten when I fed my pleco an algae wafer during the night so im suspicious of him


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

Community90 said:


> can a rubber-lipped pleco that is only about 3 inches long eat the eyes of a 4 inch bala shark.
> 
> i also have tin foil barbs...including a 5 inch larger one. Could they have eaten the eyes?
> 
> The eyes were eaten when I fed my pleco an algae wafer during the night so im suspicious of him


List all of the fish in the tank please.


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## Community90 (Jan 22, 2011)

tin foil barbs, bala sharks, rubber lip pleco, banded leopard,


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## Community90 (Jan 22, 2011)

and rosy barbs i forgot...one of which also has an eye eaten out


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

One of the barbs, for sure


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## Community90 (Jan 22, 2011)

snyderguy said:


> One of the barbs, for sure


anything i can do to prevent it from happening again?


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## snyderguy (Feb 9, 2010)

Besides take the barbs or bala sharks out? Nothing really..


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## Community90 (Jan 22, 2011)

snyderguy said:


> Besides take the barbs or bala sharks out? Nothing really..


is it normal for tin foils to not get along with bala sharks?? i thought they would mesh fine


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## Ponera (Oct 31, 2011)

I have found barbs to be very unpredictable. I had 2 that got along fine in my tank and a third that proceeded to kill them.


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## Ghost Knife (Mar 12, 2008)

The larger the school of Barbs the less aggressive they are, usually.


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## Obsidian (May 20, 2007)

I would look for other injuries to the scales. Pleco's will, on occasion, suck slime coats off of other fish and I suppose it would also be possible for them to snag an eye. I would doubt this in the absence of other issues with the fish. My Rosy's were quite tame and I only had 4 in a 100 gallon. It is also possible it is the tin foil barbs. I would stage a sneak attack and watch the fish with the lights out. That will give you a better idea of the aggression levels between fish even if you don't see them in the act of eye plucking.


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## Ponera (Oct 31, 2011)

Ghost Knife said:


> The larger the school of Barbs the less aggressive they are, usually.


Too bad i never could get to this point with the murderous rampage of this one barb!


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## Fishpunk (Apr 18, 2011)

snyderguy said:


> Besides take the barbs or bala sharks out? Nothing really..


Could get the fish tiny goggles.


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## Community90 (Jan 22, 2011)

Fishpunk said:


> Could get the fish tiny goggles.


im going with this hahaha


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

The fact that you said one of the barbs has an eye eaten makes me think it ISN'T the barbs. 
Most of what I just read says that tinfoil barbs are peaceful, docile fish. Is this incorrect?
Or is it the rosy barbs being the culprit? Do those turn on each other?
Granted, all of this is based on having at least 5 of each one.


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## Sorafish (Sep 15, 2011)

Community90 said:


> tin foil barbs, bala sharks, rubber lip pleco, banded leopard,


banded leopard what?


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