Guppies Disappearing 1 or 2 at a time

adoyle983

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Mar 3, 2014
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I have a 60 gallon tank right now there are 5 clown loaches ranging in size from 6" to 3", 1 4" Yasuhikotakia modesta(blue botia), 1 4" angel fish, a bristlenose pleco, and 7 guppies. I had 15 guppies, over the last month they have been slowly but surely disappearing. I have stripped tank of all decor a few times after a disappearance to find no signs of the guppies in the filters or on the floor(sealed top on tank). Yesterday another disappeared so I again stripped tank and this time I found a small piece of skin with a tiny bit of meat still on it! I feed the tank a variety of food alternating between brine shrimp, blood worms, flakes, and pellets. All water parameters are also spot on 7.1 pH 0 ammonia nitrite and nitrate also great. Any ideals? I think they are being eatin but can't find anything on this. Thanks in advance for your help
 

screaminleeman

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Nov 27, 2009
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My money is on the angel, an adult angel could easily eat a guppy.


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I doubt that seriously. The 4" angel would almost certainly devour the entire guppy.

They very well may be killing each other and the Pleco cleaning up the "evidence" quickly.

Guppy sex?

I cannot fathom any possibility of you NOT having more baby guppies than the tank could handle as food if you had something of a decent sex mixed ration of females to males.

This is your challenge. Place 14 female guppies in with your 7 males and problem solved. Get 3 males if you the 7 that you have are females.

In the dozens upon dozens of times that I have put mixed sex guppies into tanks of any size, they have NEVER failed to display their potency as live bearers.
 

adoyle983

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Mar 3, 2014
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I had maintained a 4 to 1 ratio from the start a have a fry tank that has about 35 baby's in it I'm picky about which ones I keep the others are live food(if they don't hide) as you all know guppies can take over very quickly. Right now I have 1 male left and 6 females. What really perplexes me is that 2 of the guppies in the main tank (females) are only about an inch long and the angel doesn't bother them??? I'm at a loss.
 

screaminleeman

Jack Dempsey
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Nov 27, 2009
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I had maintained a 4 to 1 ratio from the start a have a fry tank that has about 35 baby's in it I'm picky about which ones I keep the others are live food(if they don't hide) as you all know guppies can take over very quickly. Right now I have 1 male left and 6 females. What really perplexes me is that 2 of the guppies in the main tank (females) are only about an inch long and the angel doesn't bother them??? I'm at a loss.

Have you ever seen a hint of interest/ interaction between either of your loaches and your guppys? It is IMO highly unlikely that they are responsible. I will now vote the Pleco. Maybe a small piece of drift wood might help keep the pleco "occupied". They actually eat the wood!
 

Oddball

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I conditioned my angels to spawn on a mixed live diet, including guppies. Don't underestimate these cichlids. My quarter-size grow-outs gulped down baby guppies as fast as I put them in the tank.
 

adoyle983

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Also, my 6" and larger CLs had no problems ripping up and eating 3-4" shiners. Guppies won't be a problem for them in the least.
Kinda what I was thinking but wasn't able to find anything to back it up. As they have lived together for a while but that was back when my loaches were much smaller. The angel doesn't seem to be able to eat anything bigger than 3/4" as that's when I usually move baby's to main tank.

screaminleeman: I have two rather large pieces of driftwood in tank. During the day the guppies go to the bottom and the loaches don't pay any attention to them but I only loose fish overnight, which somebody correct me if I'm wrong but don't cl's prefer to feed at night? Thanks for the reply. Everybody on this site is so helpful. No sarcasm ment.
 

Oddball

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My CLs were fed in the morning and evening. But, they're naturally night foragers. In fact, mine could be seen 'sleeping', at odd times, during the day under overhangs and inside driftwood.
 
You have glossed over the "murderer" - its right under your nose - Yasuhikotakia modesta(blue botia) are savage little beasts. They definitely kill other fish if the desire presents itself.
 
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