General Question

a_win15's avatar

Catfish ate my shark?

Asked by a_win15 (4points) October 7th, 2019

I just bought a red finned shark and an upside down catfish yesterday. The catfish is smaller than the shark. I always keep new fish quarantined for a little bit before putting them into my normal tank to keep them from spreading anything back and forth just in case. Anyway, they were doing well together this morning, minding their own business. I came back upstairs to sleep and noticed that my shark is gone? The catfish is just peacefully swimming around. I took the catfish out to deep search the whole tank, and no sign of the shark anywhere, it’s like he never existed, no fins left, nothing. Is it possible my (smaller) catfish ate the larger shark?

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10 Answers

gorillapaws's avatar

“Once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth.”

-Arthur Conan Doyle

Sorry to hear about your shark.

Tropical_Willie's avatar

Look in the filter. I’ve had tropical fish off and on for almost 60 years.

a_win15's avatar

@Tropical_Willie I just checked in the filter as well and still no sign of him. I don’t know how there aren’t any parts of him left, there’s no way my catfishes’ stomach is big enough to fit all that, and the catfish doesn’t appear to be any larger.

MrGrimm888's avatar

Catfish swallow prey whole. Some have been found dead, with prey too large for them to eat. It’s feasible. Most catfish, have boney structures in their mouths. Sharks, are mostly cartilage.

I had to remove a catfish from my tank. Because was was eating my other fish. I returned him, to the aquarium shop. No more missing fish…

rebbel's avatar

Just for my information, what size shark and catfish are we talking (and tank)?

snowberry's avatar

A redfinned shark is a tropical fish that looks like a shark, and also known as a rainbow shark. It is not actually a shark.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rainbow_shark

Check the floor around the tank. They are known for jumping. https://www.fishlore.com/profiles_rainbow_shark.htm

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Patty_Melt's avatar

I brought a catfish hatchling home once from the local lake. I was mighty pleased with myself for catch him with my bare hands. He was about the size of a pinkie finger.
I put him in our aquarium with our plain old goldfish. The goldfish were at least triple his size. Within hours he began eating non lethal chunks from the goldfish.
Catfish are bad ass.

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