Gangsta guppy!

[ScorpiosWife]

Last week one of my neon tetras came up literally skinned about half way down his body. His tail was just 2 points (tiny bones) & he couldn't do anything but look down at the bottom. Needless to say, I put him down. I thought maybe one of the bigger mollies had tried to eat him. Not so.

Yesterday I moved everything but the guppies out of the 55g. That's all that's left in there. I have spent most of the afternoon doing a water change & clenaing the sump on another tank right across from the guppies and have kept a close eye on them since I introduced new ones this weekend.

I checked the guppies, went into my son's room to check the fry tank, came back out & checked the guppies again. That fast I have a female guppy with no tail, just bones, who can't right herself. It's a guppy gone gangsta!

I need to find the OG and move him/her into a tank of its own. :(

[BrAin]

Dang. Thats crazy.

[troy tucker]

get a bag and place fish in bag. place bag in freezer and wait two hours.....

[Fancyfish]

That's pretty amazing! I wonder if you have something hiding in your tank? I can't imagine a guppy doing that and certainly not that fast!

[troy tucker]

you maybe right Fancyfish. doesn't sound like a guppy.

[SunnyHouTX]

Maybe a filter/powerhead or some other hardware it's doing that?

[allysangels]

sounds like somebodys experiencing an "excited delerium"

[mnemenoi]

Perhaps a very good miscreant loose in the tank? I have found skunk botia alive after not seeing them for over 4 years. Anything ever get 'lost' in the tank? I know its a long shot, but otherwise I would have to agree with Sunny that equipment would be my next possible culprit. Try buying a coarse sponge and fitting it over anything like a powerhead or suction intake. I'm not discounting female guppies as they can be viscious, but their speed compared to neons would be difficult to match and they just lack the jaw strength I imagine would be neded to inflict that sort of trauma. Hopefully you'll find whats causing it

[ScorpiosWife]

Thanks guys. I've gone over each of the things yall suggested & all of those are great ideas. I wish I could blame it on one but I can't. It can't be hardware because I have a piece of bonded filter material rubber banded around the intake to avoid sucking up missed fry & juvies & thats been in place for 2 months. The only things in that tank are a piece of driftwood & 2 flower pots with bubblers running through the hole in the bottom since I removed the substrate last week, after the tetra came up skinned.

Nothing has ever come up missing either, I also have no power head & no substrate, just a glass bottom. I had the tank in the front yard & cleaned it out completely last week, after the tetra episode and before the guppy mishap today, so nothing could be hiding in it. The only things that were ever in that tank before them were the juvie GSPs and they've both in a different tank for 2 months. I think I have a rogue guppy.
One of them bishes is bad! I'm gonna and watch. *sigh*

[allysangels]

still havent ruled out bath salts, you might want to consider rehab, this is serious stuff... have you SEEN the news latley?

[ScorpiosWife]

Our Hell's Angels are hoarding the bath salts. On a good note when I removed everyone but the guppies, I put 11 Danios, zebra & neon alike, in with the Hell's Angels. Still 11 today! They don't stay still long enough for the angels to come up with a murdurous plot, lol.

[ScorpiosWife]

I spent 2 hours sitting in front of the tank tonight, like a dork, & no one made any attempt to skin anyone or as one of my friends suggested "threw up any gang signs". LOL We shall see what transpires tomorrow.

[Fancyfish]

My only other thought on this is really weird but could it maybe be some sort of flesh eating bacteria? From the description of the neon it sounded like the bones were not touched just the flesh gone. And in fish that small, i can't see they eating the flesh and not the bones.

Though I guess what could happen is one takes a bite and now you have an open wound and the other swarm it but get distracted and don't finish it off. ...

Isn't it wonderfull how they keep us amused. :P

[allysangels]

neon disease can be devastating in guppy populations, and can produce these effects.

[Fancyfish]

oh. That's good to know. is it a bactria or virus, do you know?