Will a larger Pleco kill/eat smaller fish??

[Sadielynne]

I put 3 small red serpae tetras in a tank with larger serpae, a couple of fruit tetras (fairly large), some neons, a glowlight tetra and 2 clown loaches. There is also a pleco that is 5-6" long (I think!). The new red serpae tetras went missing 2 days after introducing them in the 45 gal. tank. Several neons are gone, too. I know when fish die the others will eat them, but I didn't see a speck of anything from them!! Could the pleco have killed and eaten them, when they are resting at night??

[kash123]

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[The Angry Loach]

A pleco is a type of algae eater and aren't really carnivorous. However, they can and will try to eat the slime coat from your other fish, which can cause serious injury over time. I would check any ornaments you have in the tank. Very often, fish get inside of root set-ups or similar fixtures and don't come back out, some even getting lost or stuck. After checking all of the nooks and crannies, if you still haven't found them, I believe your suspects should be your very out numbered clown loaches. When not kept in proper groups of five or more, they can be very aggressive and attacks can lead to death.

Before jumping to that conclusion though, you should really be looking around in the tank. I've had fish crawl up into filtration systems as well.

[emeliafaith]

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