community fish tank
 

so we have this old 92 gallon fish tank and would like a little community fish tank. when i say community, i don't mean everyone in the block shares the fish tank, rather it's a tank of 'community' (friendly, co-existing) fish.

when they were on sale, we got about 20-30 of the neon tetras and a bunch of other small peaceful fish with various colors. then i saw some bala sharks on sale. we bought 6 of them after reading that they were community fish. since then, 1 has decided to jump out of the tank and commit suicide leaving 5.

but lately, i've taken the time to sit and observe the tank and noticed that the sharks are about 5 inches long now and most of the other fish are gone. no bones, no nothing. heck even the 4 sucker fish are gone too.

so what i'm wondering is if the sharks are actually eating the other fish and if anyone else here has seen this happen? we do happen to have a thai black sword fish. looks like an eel with it's ghostly fins on bottom, a yellow stripe down it's head and 2 yellow rings on its tail. that's sword fish is not a community fish, but it doesn't seem likely to be the culprit.

any suggestions please before i have to give away the bala sharks?

thanks

Not uncommon at all. Sharks eat smaller fish.We had bala sharks and oscars,They both ate feeder goldfish.My suggestion... bigger fishes. :)

You may want to get yourself a plastic divider and isolate the swordfish for a week or so to see if more fish disappear. If you can't do this, I would still bet on the sharks being the culprits. I'm not sure this species in particular, but sharks do love their fish meat. Getting bigger fish may just be the equivalent of buying them a bigger lunch. Meaner fish - now that's the ticket. ;)

I think all fish love their fish meat, I mean Ive had goldfish pick a shark's bones clean. Even the brains, until all that was left was a nice white skeleton.
But since there arent any skeletons in your case I bet it was the sharks.

if you want to keep the neons then you have to get rid of the balas. in a tank that size you might be able to get away with one of them but having five in there is too much. your neons just don't stand a chance. if you want to put larger fish in the tank with your neons then look for non aggressive fish.

ROTFL... neon tetras are like < 1in long right? You mixed them with sharks?

Hehehe good one. There goes like 50 bucks worth of fish. :rolleyes: (they are like 1-2$ ea. aren't they)

It's true... if a fish dies of natural causes the other fish will eat it. That's why you are supposed to remove dead fish ASAP... because after a day or two the dead fish will start to grow stuff and the other fish will eat it. Even if the other fish aren't normally carnivorus or agressive they will still eat it.

well actually my money's on the swordfish. When someone says "bala shark" they don't mean "small version of a Great White." Balas are scavengers, not hunters. Why don't you drop the swordfish in a different tank? I bet your tetras will stop disappearing.