LilyB

I'd recently decided that I was going to start a tropical fish aquarium after moving into my new home and successfully transporting my two 9 year old piranhas (Bitey and Snippy). The piranhas are doing great and I love them. My son loves them as well and after transporting my piranhas from a 55 gallon tank to a 120 gallon tank a few years ago I figured I'd let my 10 year old son help me start this new tank. So my son and I went to petsmart (after a week of preparing the tank) and start picking out fish. After consulting with the "fish expert" I ended up purchasing 1 angelfish, a catfish of some sort, and a silver finned shark (my sons picks). This was yesterday afternoon. This morning the angelfish is gone! I found what seems to be little pieces of the angelfish floating on the surface of the tank and around the filter tube. ! My son is devasted and doesn't want to believe that the fish is dead already. The angelfish was the only one he had named (otis). I'm not new to raising fish but am new to compatibility. My questions are

1. What kind of catfish do I have? It's all over the place spending some of it's time swimming upside down at the surface of the tank. I'm thinking Pleco but that's not what it was labeled in the store. it was something catfish.
2. Could the silver fin have eaten the angelfish? If so, will it eat the catfish.
3. Can I get my money back from Petsmart if I took in the remains?
4. Are silverfins mistaken for other types of shark i.e. bala iridescent?
5. Should I return the 2 remaining fish and start from scratch?

Please help so confused.

Peter243243

I don't realy know how to answer any of the questions but, try the memmorial section.

You might get answers there.

Tumbleweed

First off welcome to Fighlore.. Second what size is your tank? Can you describe the cat fish colors, strips, or better yet can you take a picture of it to show us. And yes depending on what type of shark that was it could have killed it, but the debris could have also been caused by the cat fish eating the remis of the dead fish.

Isabella

Welcome to Fish Lore

I am sorry to hear about your angel ... and it's pretty scary that it was torn to pieces! I am sorry if I got this wrong but did you put the angel in the same tank that the piranhas are? If you did ... that's the reason the angel is gone. Or do you have a separate tank? If so, how large is it? Is it cycled? Do you know exactly what kind of a shark the silver fin is? How large was the angel and how large is the silver fin? How large is the catfish and what is its coloring? There are actually catfish that swim upside down, maybe you have one of those? But, as Tumbleweed has said, pictures would be VERY helpful.

Peter243243

Piranhas are normally herbivores and/or scavengers, only misunderstood.

It's Hollywood to blame for the misunderstanding.

Stradius011

No, piranhas are carnivores not herbivores. I know someone who has piranhas. I can never keep them because you have to feed them live food (feeder guppies & feeder goldfish).

Peter243243

I also said scavengers or is that only in nature?

skippi

From what I have seen my friend in college had a pair of piranhas and the only thing the ywould eat were live goldfish. They would chase them around the tank and gouble them whole. I wouldn't put anything in with them that you don't want eaten

Heidi

Phonemonkey

Lol, one of the funniest things I've read in a long time.

Isabella

Piranhas are carnivores! I never had any piranhas so I don't know if they're very aggressive at a home tank, but I would guess they are. Besides, even if they were not aggressive, the facts that they're carnivores and that they're much larger than small angels, make it very probable for them to shred angels to pieces. Not to mention their teeth ...

Peter243243

Ok, either

1. I'm wrong.(and my source is wrong too.)
or
2. Piranahs are trained to be mean.(unlikely)

Which is funny herbivore/scavengers or Hollywood?

Stradius011

LilyB, the catfish is probably the black-belly catfish if it swims upsidedown.