Pleco eating guppies

[guppy25]

Recently all of my male guppies, four or five, are missing and the only possible culprit that I can think of is the 9" butterfly pleco I have in my 30 gallon extra high tank. The male guppies were about 3/4 full grown and none of the females were bothered, I searched the tank and did not find any remains of the missing male guppies. Most places I have read on the internet state that plecos would not eat smaller fish , but a few say that it is possible. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have had a similar experience or might have some knowledge that could help me out. Thank You.

[murdock6701]

I have never had a butterfly pleco so I cannot state from experience on whether or not he is the culprit - however, a 9" pleco can do some thrashing and inadvertently injure or kill a smaller fish which then would be scavenged by the catfish for sure - in terms of a pleco eating them outright, I would say the chances are nil - sorry for the loss of your guppies btw

[Carl]

I agree with murdock as to the chances of your Plecostumus eating your guppies; for one a healthy guppy can easily escape a clumsy larger plecostumus.

My thought is along the lines of healthy guppies; what I would guess has happened is that the guppies died from other causes (disease, water conditions, etc.) and the Plecostumus simply took care of the remains.

Please check you water parameters, since guppies need higher mineral cations, if these were not present this could weaken your guppies to disease pathogens such Columnaris or Aeromonas.
As well check ammonia, nitrites, water circulation, etc.

See these articles as well:
Aquarium Calcium Cations, minerals, pH, GH, KH, etc
Livebearers; Guppys profiles

Carl

[bikeguy33]

i agree....plecos are not hunters, altho they sometimes attach themselves to larger fish and eat their slime coat,which will often kill the fish. but not smaller fish, but as mentioned,they are great at cleaning up dead things

[goldenpuon]

I think it is unlikely that the pleco killed the guppies. Maybe it ate them after they were already dead? Then again I have never kept a pleco with my guppies so I don't have experience with that. Good luck. Hope you don't lose anymore fish.

[kagome]

I think you said in your intro thread that you have rainbows in that tank? If they are big enough I would not put it past the rainbows to be eating your guppies, they will eat practically anything. If the guppies are small enough to fit in their mouths then my money would be on the rainbows having eaten them. Rainbows are just voracious when it comes to food. I have kept a wide variety of plecos with many, many other kinds of fish and have never had a problem with them eating anybody. I've had them with really tiny fish even without incident. That doesn't mean it's impossible, only that it's never happened to me. I wish you luck and hope you don't lose anymore fish.

[kieron92]

Jun 28, 2009 14:47:30 GMT -5 guppy25 said:

Recently all of my male guppies, four or five, are missing and the only possible culprit that I can think of is the 9" butterfly pleco I have in my 30 gallon extra high tank. The male guppies were about 3/4 full grown and none of the females were bothered, I searched the tank and did not find any remains of the missing male guppies. Most places I have read on the internet state that plecos would not eat smaller fish , but a few say that it is possible. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have had a similar experience or might have some knowledge that could help me out. Thank You.

I just woke up to my guppy being sucked on by one of my bristlenose plecs. The guppy had a slight bit of tail missing so it was sometimes lazy and rested on the floor for a bit before acting normal again. I think the plec took advantage of this.

[Carl]

Feb 23, 2018 5:05:29 GMT -5 kieron92 said:

Jun 28, 2009 14:47:30 GMT -5 guppy25 said:

Recently all of my male guppies, four or five, are missing and the only possible culprit that I can think of is the 9" butterfly pleco I have in my 30 gallon extra high tank. The male guppies were about 3/4 full grown and none of the females were bothered, I searched the tank and did not find any remains of the missing male guppies. Most places I have read on the internet state that plecos would not eat smaller fish , but a few say that it is possible. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who might have had a similar experience or might have some knowledge that could help me out. Thank You.

I just woke up to my guppy being sucked on by one of my bristlenose plecs. The guppy had a slight bit of tail missing so it was sometimes lazy and rested on the floor for a bit before acting normal again. I think the plec took advantage of this.

Good point!

Carl

[krystal]

So yesterday I moved my 2 inch albino pleco from my 20 gallon long tank into a smaller tank that already had a small male guppy in it and this morning there was no guppy just the pleco. I had added some more plants from the larger tank to the small one so I thought he might be hiding, but there is no sign of him. I checked around the tank to see if he jumped out, even though he's not a jumper. Nothing. My pleco likes to suck on the walls and it looks like there is something different about his organs it looks like a line, maybe the guppy spine?

[devonjohnsgard]

Apr 13, 2021 9:34:00 GMT -5 krystal said:

So yesterday I moved my 2 inch albino pleco from my 20 gallon long tank into a smaller tank that already had a small male guppy in it and this morning there was no guppy just the pleco. I had added some more plants from the larger tank to the small one so I thought he might be hiding, but there is no sign of him. I checked around the tank to see if he jumped out, even though he's not a jumper. Nothing. My pleco likes to suck on the walls and it looks like there is something different about his organs it looks like a line, maybe the guppy spine?

I would be really surprised, cause they usually eat off the bottom and sides. Never seen a pleco eat a fish that wasn't already dead. I would check water parameters.