Woke up this morning and things didn't look good... Oto with tail almost torn off!

[philipraposo198]

This happened overnight, one of my otos this morning pretty much had his tail ripped right off. Its dangling there but not much is holding on. If you guys remember I had posting a few weeks ago about another one of my otos I found with a chunk of flesh missing from the side of his face. At that time I never thought it could of been caused by a fish and blamed myself for putting in a sharp piece of rock in the tank.

Well there is nothing sharp in the tank now ecept for fish teeth I have 4 pearls and I suspect one of them is the culprit but don't know forsure as during normal hours as I watch my fish I never seen aggression from them at all.

Since this is the second incident with no explanation and I can't remove the fish causing it because I don't know who it is I have decided to rehome / sell my otos as I don't want this to continue.

I have the poor oto in the fry mesh box things, he is breathing faster than normal and the area looks bad. I don't think he will make it as the other oto with the flesh wood died in less than 24 hours.

here is a pic.




I love my otos and I am reluctant to get rid of them, even more so because of how great they have been doing in my tank besides the elusive attacker

If not the pearls then what else could of cause this kind of damage in my tank? I have no rocks, nothing has fallen, water is pristine, i have no idea. it must of been them right?!

 

[TrueEnvy]

Do you have any other fish than the pearls? And I assume your talking about pearl gruomies (spelling)

 

[philipraposo198]

1 small golden ram and 25 cardinals

 

[TrueEnvy]

It might have been the ram I've read that they can be aggressive

 

[philipraposo198]

He is not big enough to cause that much damage. And he is harmless soul. If he wants the pearls to move he gengle pushes them.

 

[TrueEnvy]

I gess it must have been one of the pearls =\

 

[schoeplein]

Pearl gourami could definitely do something like that. Especially if they otos are much smaller. I had a dwarf gourami in a 5g and he made short work of guppies and danios. In my 65g tank, my tetras and danios can be swarming around him trying to get at an algae wafer and he doesn't even care. A slight wave of his side fins and the other fish scatter.

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[Mcgolg76]

Do you know the sex of your 4 gouramis? Has one of them gotten more colorful recently and tried to build a bubble nest? My old male pearl gourami went into wanna mate mode. Built bubble nests and got super aggressive. My lead suspect in a few cory deaths and cut up the females mouth. I broke up the bubble nest and turned down the heat a few degrees and calmed down. My new male gourami is much calmer. After 2 days in tank he started eating out of my fingers and he lets me pet him. Have ottos in tank also and never been harmed. They become much more active when I got a bunch. The best bet to keep your current injured alive is do extra water changes and some aquarium salt. Less chance of infection