A Fine Balance

[nolapete]

My 75 has:

2 fat sleepers 7-8"
pair of adult ports
pair of 6-7" blood parrots
2 plecos 14-16"
1 pleco 10-12"
rainbow shark
unknown syno cat
blue spot goby
unknown fish "sold as sunshine guppy" 5-6"

I took in another rescue pleco about 8" or so and the next day, yesterday, I find him flipped upside down barely alive on the bottom with his fins ripped to shreds. There's barely been any aggression in the tank other than the male port and male blood parrot facing off on occasion. I'm wondering who the likely culprit in this is. Any ideas/thoughts?

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

I'm no expert on many types of the fish you have in your tank, however randomly adding large plecos to tanks which already have existing large plecos is not a good idea, as many of the larger varieties of plecos are territorial towards each other, and a 75gallon tank is not that big for allowing each pleco to have a decent size territory- really you need a larger tank, particularly if your plecos are common or gibby/sailfin ones.

With the "sunshine guppy", it could be a golden wonder killifish;

http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/pfk/images/golden_wonder.jpg

Anyways, it is not adviseable to buy fish when you do not know what they are, otherwise how can you research the fishes needs on a false name?

 

[nolapete]

The plecos are normals and were rescues. They were slated to go to the 210 once it's ready, but they are going to a friend's 2000 g tank in a few weeks. I hadn't had any problems with the other 3. The larger two didn't do anything to the 3rd when it was added, so I didn't give that much though. Maybe because this one was half their size they decided to teach junior a thing or two.

The main reason I bought the "sunshine guppy" is that it was getting the crap beat out of it in the tank it was in and the shop wasn't doing anything about it. His head scales were hanging off by a thread. Surprisingly large scales too. He's since recovered, but has a scar on his head. He's much duller than the golden wonder killifish, but has similar shape.

I've kept fish for 35 years, so I agree about not buying fish you don't know ahead of time through research what to expect.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Common pleco;

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=88

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=87

Sailfin pleco;

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=148




I would say it is reasonably likely that your other plecos beat the newcomer up since there isn't enough space for the current ones, adding another large pleco could have pushed them to the edge.
Plecos are most active at night, so most of the agression would have happened at night.


With the sunshine guppy, i know its tempting to rescue fish from petshops, but buying the fish you will only be paying the petshop to put another fish in its place which will probably end up in the same situation.
Aren't blue spot gobies brackish? I don't know much about them.

 

[nolapete]

Most likely on the pleco, but it was just surprising as whichever it was beat it to near death. It died this morning.

The blue spot was sold as freshwater and has done well. It's tripled in size since I bought it a couple months ago. I suspect that like many gobies they can do well in freshwater, brackish, and likely marine environments.

Likely true with that shop, but that's something each person has to decide. There's an argument for both sides. I thought the fish was interesting as well, so there was more than just the rescue mentality backing my purchase.