PlanetCatfish.com

Hey,
One of my communal tanks has 2 Synodontis euptera in it. With a Pleco (yet to be identified L2something) & kribensis. I am trying to get the Krib's to breed again, after "Big Boy" Pleco snuffled up those gorgeous eggs the first time. One of the syno's is a lovely chap, comes up & says hello & asks for food etc. The other, the biggest, is a total turd. He fights with the smaller syno, he steals food from the pleco's mouth (& has felt those barbs almost daily), he stabbed to death a former male breeder Kirb, with his tail & he hates to be seen... "monster of the deep" I call him
The problem is, my only breeding male Krib left has disappeared!?!? He was there & I went to work & he was gone???
It's been 2 days of no sightings AT ALL?? The gals are still there & healthy & no diseases. So I have come up with only one theory (after searching around my tank to make sure male isn't on the ground somewhere). My theory is that "monster of the deep" ate him??? Monster is around 3.5 inches now, he doesn't like the Kribs because they're so aggressive to him, he eats like I never fed him before (although i've never seen him poo) and he would probably do it just because he can... ??
But there is absolutely no sign of a Body. There is only 3 female Kribs- not enough to have eaten their whole buddy in a few hours & they've never eaten any other tank mates who are doing the "final float"
So like I said- My theory is Monster of the deep ate him in a jealous moment??
Anyone wanna argue or support my theory??

2 is a bad number for almost all synos as one will end up picking on the other as i think youe are seeing.

The Euptera is still small & probably wouldn't eat a male krib - they are not predatory but will opportunistically eat fry etc. However if the krib had died of whatever cause, the synos & plec would probably eat the dead fish.

Yep, if the male krib has gone, its either jumped out the tank and is still undiscovered, or has died and been eaten by the catfish.

Ok, sort of YAY... confirmation is a good thing. Means i'm not mad, but my Syno is
I thought Syno's would be happy tankmates, when they're little they're such happy little gang fish... Now I gotta feed with a shovel just to keep the peace
At least I wont be searching my tank anymore saying "where the fekk??" & I have done a search of around the tank- didn't find anything (or smell).
I actually got sold the Syno's as "upside down" catfish & thought "oh great they'll stay little" now I see huge Euptera in fish shops everywhere & think, that'll be the size of mine soon?!?
The Big cranky one doesn't get any more confident as he gets bigger though... He loves night prowling & will happily come out at feeding time, but not if I have visitors over etc... He really is a bit of a psycho... & now I fear everytime I put my hand in the tank that Monster of the deep gonna attack me!?!? HE GONNA STAB ME

Yeah well...
There is a price you pay it appears... 3 days after my 2 inch krib disappeared both my Euptera became extremely bloated
I treated the tank with epsom salts to get things going. The smallest Euptera recovered within an hour & was back to normal quite fast, obviously she'd only had a small portion. The Monster recovered & came back to normal for a few days but then apparently there was a fight & the smallest one won???
All I know is that Monster was sick again (food had only returned to normal portions previous evening, after diet). He had his bloated belly & was loosing colour a little, but most importantly he had a large cut on 1 side & what looked like a piercing whole?? He went through the night & in the morning he had developed a green slime (I think it's the blue slime talked of??). I had tried to get him out the previous evening to a hospital tank, but after 1 attempt I knew that would be more stressful than productive... The little 1 was still fine & his injuries were healing a little. So I went to sleep for the 2nd night & awoke to my first Big casualty
I measured him & he was actually a 5-inch fish, which means the little 1 is 3.5 inches.
It's far worse to loose a big imposing fish, very noticeable in the tank
For anyone who hasn't felt the Barb in a Euptera (luckily I only had a feel - not a spike ) On a 5 inch Euptera the spike felt same density & length as a 1 inch Pin nail. Glad i've never been stung
So if you think it was more than constipation & fights which got him, comment away?? But that's my only thoughts...

Swollen belly is normally not purely constipation, but an internal infection. Especially if it's fatal.

The cause of internal infection isn't quite so easy to establish - can be wrong food, or it can be poor water conditions.

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Mats

Yes understood. If it was infection it must have been what made the Krib week enough to become food... But the other 1 recovered...
The slime she developed was strange- not sure. But she did recover from her constipation, only to become sick again few days later. No other fish have been trouble in the tank??

All I know is that Monster was sick again (food had only returned to normal portions previous evening, after diet).

In this scenario if a syno has been off food for whatever reason,( dieting or owner away on holidays,etc) it is hard not too(for some) feed as much or sometimes more than what a person would have fed when the fish was used to being fed this much, the problem is the fish will eat all it can sometimes to the point of causing internal problems. Of course some foods will affect the fish more than others in this way.

To finalise this I should add- After losing a couple of other fish I realised I had a rock releasing lime into the water- FEKK!!
I had been monitoring the Ph, but seeing all other water conditions were fine, I had been raising it when I saw it was low, but not realising how low it was going- down to the 5's.... After replacing all rock in the tank my liddle fushy's have all regained health.
I just realise now- I'M A FISH KILLER

Lesson = test rocks in a control environment before introducing

And testing is soo easy

Just pour some acetic acid on the rock. If it bubbles, it contains lime

Hang on: If your rock is releasing lime, it would make the water's pH rise. So whilst your rock may well be affecting the pH, but if the pH is going DOWN, then it's not limestone affecting the water. If your water is already soft, the pH will go down by itself, without no "leeching" from anything in the tank - just the "pollution" that the fish produce will do this.

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Mats

Without the rocks your pH would drop faster. In fact the rocks possible prevented a total pH-crash.

Are you using one of the worst aquarium related inventions ever, a CO2-thing?

no, i'm not using one of those stupid things

Ok lime must be wrong, i don't really know what the rocks where releasing, someone else suggested lime, aaagh too much pressure
It was the rocks anyway. I have stable ph now & everyone is healthy