Cardinal Tetra got bitten

[glencch]

My community fishes tank seems to have got a carnivore.

In the tank, there's like 9 congo tetras, 27 guppies, 7 mollies, 8 cardinal tetras, 7 danios, 15 SAE, 10 otocinclus, 40 Yamato Shrimps and 6 bn plecos...

Everything was going well... Guppies and mollies recently had lots of fries.

And today I saw 1 of my Cardinal tetra died and had it belly eaten out.

Anyone has any idea what might have had happened to him? Who might be the most likely culprit? ?

 

[Krismo962]

You see,a fish attacked it and tore its belly open then proceeded to eat it's vital organs and without the vital organs it cannot survive so it has perished.

 

[glencch]

You see,a fish attacked it and tore its belly open then proceeded to eat it's vital organs and without the vital organs it cannot survive so it has perished.

Yes, looks like it. But who might be the culprit?

 

[Milingu]

Maybe it just died from another cause and the belly was opened post mortem.

Or the belly opened due to an illness.
This C. pardalis was the biggest among his siblings and it's belly opened and the guts came out without any fish biting it.

 

[glencch]

Tha

Maybe it just died from another cause and the belly was opened post mortem.

Or the belly opened due to an illness.
This C. pardalis was the biggest among his siblings and it's belly opened and the guts came out without any fish biting it.
View attachment 1485086

That's very sad. My Cardinal seems to have its flesh eaten as well. ?

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Tha

That's very sad. My Cardinal seems to have its flesh eaten as well. ?

Welcome abroad! My 2 cents is that the other cardinal tetras are just cannibalizing their dead schoolmate.
I had actually seen this happen when one of my cardinal tetras in quarantine died 2 days ago. Its belly was eaten out and other cardinal tetras were the only other fish.

 

[glencch]

Welcome abroad! My 2 cents is that the other cardinal tetras are just cannibalizing their dead schoolmate.
I had actually seen this happen when one of my cardinal tetras in quarantine died 2 days ago. Its belly was eaten out and other cardinal tetras were the only other fish.

Oh my goodness... never knew they were cannibals.

 

[MultipleTankSyndrome]

Pretty much all carnivorous/omnivorous fish have the potential to be cannibals. Meat is meat.

 

[glencch]

Pretty much all carnivorous/omnivorous fish have the potential to be cannibals. Meat is meat.

Oh... Thanks

I hope the killing stops. LOL

 

[DrownedFishonFire]

Cardinals are a sensitive fish to keep so yes it more likely happened post mortem. I would not stress out yet why it died it could be anything. Fish will do this so will shrimps as well eating dead things is normal life occurrence to them. If it was left in tank for another day or two you might have never saw the corpse. Sorry for your loss.