Platy Problem?
I have a well established 30 gallon tank in my home that contains an Angelfish, two four line pictus cats and a few larger tetras (Buenos Aires, etc). My wife thought it looked empty and bland, so while we picked up some other things, we grabbed six red wag platys at the LFS. After transferring to my tank, they immediately appeared comfortable and ate a bit. I watched them for a while and all appeared well.
The next morning, they’re all gone. Not even a body to be found.
The pictus cats have a hollow log and very rarely come out during the day. Even through careful surveillance, I only catch glimpses of them and have never seen any aggression from them.
Did the platys all die and get eaten by the cats? Or did the cats attack and eat them overnight? All the other fish continue to be healthy and the I’ve had no trouble from this aquarium for quite some time.
Posted Nov 21, 2017, 9:58 PM UTC
The catfish ate them. Guaranteed.
A bigger concern you should have though is your tank is overstocked. A four lined pictus needs a 40 gallon breeder or bigger to itself. Get a second in there and you're looking at a 75. They can easily reach 8-10" in length or more with whiskers just as long. Because of this they need adequate room to swim and not have their whiskers touching the sides of the tank all the time. It's equivalent to you running your hands on the walls as you walk, being able to touch both walls at the same time, and that's as much room as you get to live
Gotcha, thanks. I’ve got larger tanks the cats can go into as they grow, I’ve had a few in the past that didn’t get nearly that big but I’ll take your word for it.