Bad crappie

[MultispeciesTamer]

So I walk up stairs to feed my small crappie and right away I see him On the bottom of the tank with no eye balls. one of the eye balls was in the claws of the crayfish. So I take him out that tank and look at the other large crappie that I moved in a few days ago from my bass tank. Its mouth is swolen and red I take a look at the small dead crappie and noticed how it scales where gone and right then I new it was the large crappie who had killed the small one. For thos of you who have looked at my last update and pics in the native media lounge youve seen the size difference is not two great. So take this as a lesson dont keep large crappie with small ones even if the small one is to big to be eatin. So before any more damage could be done I moved the crappie to the kiddie pool with my bluegills.

 

[sostoudt]

So I walk up stairs to feed my small crappie and right away I see him On the bottom of the tank with no eye balls. one of the eye balls was in the claws of the crayfish. So I take him out that tank and look at the other large crappie that I moved in a few days ago from my bass tank. Its mouth is swolen and red I take a look at the small dead crappie and noticed how it scales where gone and right then I new it was the large crappie who had killed the small one. For thos of you who have looked at my last update and pics in the native media lounge youve seen the size difference is not two great. So take this as a lesson dont keep large crappie with small ones even if the small one is to big to be eatin. So before any more damage could be done I moved the crappie to the kiddie pool with my bluegills.

you know a crayfish is just a small lobster. almost any crustacean like lobsters or crabs are oppurtunistic eaters, so if they see a oppurtunity for a meal they will take it. usually its at night or with sick fish.

they crappies may have fought then your crayfish got his trophy the loser.

 

[MultispeciesTamer]

you know a crayfish is just a small lobster. almost any crustacean like lobsters or crabs are oppurtunistic eaters, so if they see a oppurtunity for a meal they will take it. usually its at night or with sick fish.

they crappies may have fought then your crayfish got his trophy the loser.

I dont find this very plausible as the cray is very small and its a her so her claws are not very big

 

[sostoudt]

I dont find this very plausible as the cray is very small and its a her so her claws are not very big

well the cray had to get the eyeball some how i doubt the crappie gave it to her as a present.


sallylightfoot crabs(nimblespray ) will catch a sick or injured fish(sometimes a healthy one too) and they that very teenie tiny claws. dont think a crustacean will hesitate to go after a potential meal.


im not trying to be a jerk, its just its common for them to go after a injured animals even if they wouldnt normally touch it if its healthy. sorry about your crappie

 

[killerfish]

Its possible it was the crawdad at night fish rest on the bottom of the tank and at night crawdads come out from there hideing spots and roam the bottom searching for food and could eaziy grab onto a fish thats roughly the same size or smaller

Sounds like the cray is alot smaller then the crappie so my guess would be the larger crappie killed/wounded the smaller one and the cray took advantage of its injuries

Sad to hear crappies are just like cichlids they all have there own personalities some are calm others are killers

 

[MultispeciesTamer]

Its possible it was the crawdad at night fish rest on the bottom of the tank and at night crawdads come out from there hideing spots and roam the bottom searching for food and could eaziy grab onto a fish thats roughly the same size or smaller

Sounds like the cray is alot smaller then the crappie so my guess would be the larger crappie killed/wounded the smaller one and the cray took advantage of its injuries

Sad to hear crappies are just like cichlids they all have there own personalities some are calm others are killers

This wasnt at night(the light was still on) and the cray had just been feed market shimp earlyer that day. The small crappie must have been dead by the time the cray got to it. It would be almost inpossible for the cray to get the eyes unless the small crappie was already dead/ or almost dead and on the bottom of the tank.

 

[blurock]

This wasnt at night(the light was still on) and the cray had just been feed market shimp earlyer that day. The small crappie must have been dead by the time the cray got to it. It would be almost inpossible for the cray to get the eyes unless the small crappie was already dead/ or almost dead and on the bottom of the tank.

That's what almost all the other posts have said as a main point...

From the sound of it...it was bound to happen at some point. But it's always sad to see a nice fish like a crappie go.

 

[hybridtheoryd16]

Not the eye ball thing. But I have seen with my own eyes if you try to break crappie and bass off of live fish onto worms, or some dead food that they will try to eat the smaller fish in the tank.

i had a 5" bass try to eat a 4" bull head. Both died.


So if you weren't feeding feeder fish then that would explain it. They were essentially starving and determined to get food somewhere even if they just ate some fake foods.

 

[MultispeciesTamer]

Not the eye ball thing. But I have seen with my own eyes if you try to break crappie and bass off of live fish onto worms, or some dead food that they will try to eat the smaller fish in the tank.

i had a 5" bass try to eat a 4" bull head. Both died.


So if you weren't feeding feeder fish then that would explain it. They were essentially starving and determined to get food somewhere even if they just ate some fake foods.

all my crappie and bass are on prepared foods my bass wont even look at a feeder. When I had my walleye in there I bought a buch of feeders and put them in there the only fish that ate them was the walleye and channel cat other then that I kept putting the same amount of pellets and market shrimp in there for the bass.

 

[WattaMelon]

Fish moved to prepared foods will still eat live foods at any given time. In fact, they relish live foods if they're mostly on prepared...in my experience (and I have a lot of it, not to toot my horn).

Also, crays kill and maim even if they're well fed. At night they grab sleeping fish... it's just in their nature. My neighbors set up their first fish tank, a 29 with a couple of dogtooth cichlids, then they decided to buy two small crays. A couple of days later their cichlids completely vanished. They found the bodies in a cave, half decomposed.

Besides, this is your larger crappie, right?

This is going to sound a little "out there" but in my experience, fish in this condition aren't up for beating up other fish.

Also, that cray you have there isn't exactly a small cray.

So, I'd blame the cray.