cannibals

Gary_Gilbert

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2012
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Cathedral city
I have a concern. I have a 250 ga. tank with various Rift Valley cichlids. What is happening is every 6 months or so one of the fish will simply disappear. These fish are 3-5 inches long. The last one was a 4 inch Venustus. Completely healthy and active. All that was left was a few bones. Does anybody else experience this and does anybody know why it happens?
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
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Aug 6, 2011
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I have a concern. I have a 250 ga. tank with various Rift Valley cichlids. What is happening is every 6 months or so one of the fish will simply disappear. These fish are 3-5 inches long. The last one was a 4 inch Venustus. Completely healthy and active. All that was left was a few bones. Does anybody else experience this and does anybody know why it happens?


Some African Cichlids are predators and will prey on smaller fish. Also most are highly aggressive so if you don't know much about them you will have lots of deaths. I personally have more to learn about them before I can one day setup a predatory Haplochromis setup.
 

Gary_Gilbert

Jack Dempsey
MFK Member
Apr 29, 2012
67
1
38
Cathedral city
I have had cichlids for years. I have lost babies to predation before. These fish are the same size. I even lost a Malawi eye biter that was one of the biggest fish in the tank. nothing but bones left.
 

tlindsey

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Aug 6, 2011
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I have had cichlids for years. I have lost babies to predation before. These fish are the same size. I even lost a Malawi eye biter that was one of the biggest fish in the tank. nothing but bones left.
Ok reread your post its possible that you may have an outbreak of some kind causing these unexplained deaths. What is your water change routine weekly, monthly?
 

tlindsey

Silver Tier VIP
MFK Member
Aug 6, 2011
23,253
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Ohio
Ok reread your post its possible that you may have an outbreak of some kind causing these unexplained deaths. What is your water change routine weekly, monthly?

It's not unusual for a weak or dead fish to be eaten off by tankmates.
 
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