Dead gbr

[Mcgolg76]

Yesterday my female gbr looked happy and healthy. Eating well. This morning she was a barely recognizable skeleton. Just wondering what happened to her. I know gbrs tend to be sensitive fish but she showed zero signs of sickness. Plus my parameters are great. Zero nitrite and ammonia. My nitrates is in the 10 range. Now did have a 7 degre temp drop in tank. Temp was a bit high at 82 so lowered it. Was at 75 when I found her body.
Body was heavily eaten in maybe a 16 hour period. So wondering if she was killed. Possible suspects are my tiger barbs. Have never seen aggression from them. A brown knife fish. He is scared of his own shadow. School of zebra loaches. They are very rambuncous. Or the male gbr. He was so bonded to her. They never mated but were always at each other's side. He def looked depressed today.
So if anybody has any theories about what happened that would be great. Also should I get another female. Those two were just so close.

 

[J1Time]

I'd say the usual suspects. Tiger barbs or the knife fish. Knife fish may seem scared but he owns the night in your tank. Tiger barbs in my opinion are an awful fish and should be kept in species only tanks. And I up on your tank at night with a flashlight and see how innocent your knife fish looks

 

[Mcgolg76]

Really think that tiger barbs have an unfair rep. They always have seemed ks peaceful to me. Have a big school and yet to seen them nip anything besides my fingers. Seemed to be buddies with my rams. They always seemed to school. Just seem wierd to turn on my ram that fast. Plus got smaller more vulnerable fish in tank. Such as rasboras and ottos

 

[Luananeko]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the Knife or Barbs. GBRs are super sensitive fish... I've had my own problems with them dropping randomly without any signs of sickness beforehand. The theory when I had a thread about my situation was that it was weak stock, it's possible that may be the culprit for you too. General consensus seems to be that if you didn't get your Rams from Yunite/SDRams then it's anyone's guess on how good the stock is...

 

[Dreamroper]

I wouldn't be so quick to blame the Knife or Barbs. GBRs are super sensitive fish... I've had my own problems with them dropping randomly without any signs of sickness beforehand. The theory when I had a thread about my situation was that it was weak stock, it's possible that may be the culprit for you too. General consensus seems to be that if you didn't get your Rams from Yunite/SDRams then it's anyone's guess on how good the stock is...

I have 6 GBRs, and got 2 from Yunite and the other 4 were ordered in for me by my LFS. I think that I have 5 males and 1 female. I've had them since January in a planted community tank with no problems. I agree that I think it's the stock.

 

[Mcgolg76]

She was just so normal the night before. Shame cause she was such a friendly fish. Constantly followed me around the tank and loved to nip my hands. Gonna wait a week and get another female so my male won't be lonely

 

[Khuligirl93]

I would suspect the zebra loaches. I used to have 2 of the closely related yoyos, and during the time I had them I had many strange fish disappearances including 3 neon tetras, 2 White Cloud Mountain minnows, and a beta. There would only be a thin carcass left over. They are pretty aggressive fish and love a meaty snack it seems.
Perhaps the temp drop stressed her, and the loaches or other fish preyed on her as she became weaker. My best guess as to who actually ate her body would be the zebra loaches though.

 

[Mcgolg76]

Agree that the loaches ate the body.