A fish died (Platy) but before I got around to removing it, it was gone. Which fish ate it?

Question

Both the Angel and the Plecostamus are very large.

Answer 1

Pelcos will eat anything. In fact despite being primarily a herbivore. They will eat anything that fits in their mouths. Also they will scavenge anything on the bottom. It's generally rare a well fed one will eat live fish, but can happen.

Answer 2

Angel

Answer 3

The pleco most likely fed on the dead body of the platy all night, which is why you can't find the body. Plecos tend to feed on dead fish when they are left in aquariums, and you can observe this in poorly maintained tanks in big stores like petco, where the bottom feeding fish like plecos and algae eaters pick at bodies of dead fish.

Answer 4

Plecostamus only eat alga so i would say the Angel did it. With the lead pipe in the conservatory.....Oh wait were we playing clue?

Answer 5

The angel probably ate it but I know the pleco would as well. I have seen those fish eating on other dead ones.

Answer 6

For future reference, always remove any dead fish as soon as you notice them. Decomposition adds all kinds of nasty toxins to the water, including ammonia.

Chances are, it was the pleco. They'll eat pretty much anything they can.

Do you happen to know why the platy died?

Answer 7

How long had it been in the tank dead? Plecos is an Algae eater and will not eat the dead, but perhaps your Angels did before you got to it.

Answer 8

How many fish are there in your tank?

Angelfish are known to be aggresive, but they have the smallest mouths of any cichlid.

How long where you gone for? It might have been both of them.

Answer 9

either. it really depends on what you feed them. if you fed the angel with vegetable then it was the piecostamus. or vice versa

Answer 10

Pleco is THE one