what the hell happened?

Question

I'm new to fish keeping and have a ten gallon aquarium and I had a white chinese shubuken fish in my tank and the next morning I found what was his body with all the insides just totally gone and nothing else seemed wrong I know this is gross and since I'm new to fish keeping could someone tell me what happened? the other fish I have in there are two kissers,a pleco,a rosy barb,a skirted tetra,a snail, a water frog,and two guppies

Answer 1

I expect what happened was the shubunkin died, and the other fish scavenged the carcass.
I know you're new to the hobby, and your tank is severely overstocked.

Kissing gouramis are semi-aggressive. They aren't actually kissing, they're fighting. A pair of kissers will need a minimum of 30 gallons.
Plecos are HUGE fish, and they can grow to be over 20 inches long. They are also poop machines and need to be in tanks that are over 150 gallons.
Rosy barbs are nippy fish, and they are schoolers. A school of rosy barbs would need a minimum of 20 gallons.
Skirted tetras are also schoolers, and they are relatively big tetras. 20 gallons minimum for them.
What do you mean by water frog? There are two types of commonly available aquatic frogs: african dwarf frog and african clawed frog. An ADF will be fine in a 10 gallon, but an ACF will need a much larger tank - and they cannot be housed with small fish, or they will eat them.

If you must keep the 10 gallon, I suggest you get rid of everything except the guppies, the snail, and the water frog (if its a dwarf). You can then get some fish better suited to your 10 gallon tank, such as a school of glow-light or neon tetras, and a dwarf gourami, or some platies.

If you can get a larger tank, then try for a 55 or 60 gallon (you can find one for 100-200$ used with filter and accessories - email or YM me if you need help looking :)), and you can keep the two kissers, and you can add to the rosy barbs and the skirted tetras so you have schools, and you could also keep the frog if its a clawed frog.

If you keep them as they currently are, I'm sorry to say that many of your fish will die premature deaths. There is really too much fish mass in that tank :(

Answer 2

Well it could be a lot of things.

1)He died from a build up of ammonia/nitrites/nitrates. The pleco, and snail then most likely ate him.

2)The kissing gourami, or barb killed him then other fish ate the rest.

PS- You may be over stocked for your tank, and are mixing the wrong types of fish. The guppy are too peaceful. The barbs, and tetras need to be kept in large group or they will fin nip the rest of your fish. The kissers are very aggressive, and any kissing that happens is a male on male shoving match. Also kissing gouramis need a 30+ gallon tank. Depending on the type of pleco he may grow over a foot in length. At most your tank is large enough for the frog, the snail and maybe 4-5 guppies.

Answer 3

Your first problem is too many fish in a small tank. The kisser fish will get to about 8 - 12 inches and shouldn't be in a tank smaller than 55 gal. The shubukin should not have been in the tank with the other fish in the first place, no matter what the tank size. It's a cold water fish and the rest are warm water fish. There also pretty dirty fish, which the rest wont like unless you do alot of tank cleaning. What most likely happened is one of the other fish killed it. Or it may have just died on its own, and the other fish ate it. Fish from the store often are sick when you get them. Especially a store that would sell you those fish together with only a 10 gal tank.

Answer 4

Well, I can't telly you what happened exactly, but I can tell you a few things -

You need to research some before you go and buy fish. You'll find out some things including:

Goldfish do not mix well with tropical fish - different requirements, different behaviour.

Kissing fish get very large and can be quite aggressive. If any fish in your tank were to be responsible, it's these guys I would point to. I would say the chances are the goldfish died on its own and then got eaten. Kissers need about 50 gallons per pair if you want them to do well long term.

Barbs and Tetra's are schooling fish - they really do best in groups and it's unnatural for them to live solo.

I would suggest doing some research and keeping it either cold water or tropical. Then make sure you keep the fish in the appropriate numbers, and stick to fish that are appropriate for your ten gallon aquarium.

Good luck.

Answer 5

I've never heard of that fish but it was no match for the others. If it wasn't sick, then the others just ate it. Kissing Gouramis & barbs or tetras can be aggressive. I suggest you start going to a better fish store so that they can guide your purchases. Unfortunately one can't make decisions based on how the fish look. Different breeds don't go well with others. In time you will learn which you can mix & which you can not. A starter tank such as yours is best kept with "community fish". Good luck.

Answer 6

Well first of all that tank is WAY too small for those fish.

Shubunkins grow 1 to 2 feet long.

kissers I guess means kissing gouramis, they grow to 12 inches, and are very aggressive

pleco? what kind? I'm assuming its a common pleco, they get huge and need minimum 125 gallons

rosy barbs need to be in groups of 6 or more, same with tetras

About the insides dissapearing, it's simple, he died from being in a tank that is overstocked and too small for it to begin with, and the other fish ate him.

Answer 7

Woah.

First off your tank is WAY OVERSTOCKED.

In a 10 gallon tank you could have the two kissers and the frog and that's it.

You can't keep goldfish in a 10 gallon tank as they get too large.

The tank also needs to cycle.

Check out this article on how to cycle a tank: http://www.aquaria.info/index.php?name=News&file=article&sid=376

Answer 8

My guess is that the tetra killed it. This is Yahoo! Guess, right?

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Oh my gosh, I just saw someone's answer--don't put bleach in the water! You do, however need to treat the water for about a week before adding fish to a tank, any fish supply store will tell you what you need to add...but don't go dumping clorox into the tank...and a 10 gallon tank is a fine size for that many fish

Answer 9

first off, for that many fish, you need atleast a 30g tank, as ANY goldfish (which is what this shubunkin fish is) needs no less than 10g to IT'S SELF!

Second, it probably died and the other fish ate it.

Answer 10

sounds like he was attacked



i would start completely over and get ONLY a male and female African wolf cichlids they'll have kids and you'll have a whole colony of cichlids and you can sell the babies for 10 or 11 bucks