Fundulus Chrysotus Eating My Fish!

So... I saw some golden topminnows in the store when I was buying some other fish. Went home, read about them, found out they're a native killifish and everything I read and watched said they're mild mannered insectivore type fish. I looked in the tank today where they are and five of my glowlight danios and one of my peacock gudgeons are gone. These guys were all together in quarantine since they were purchased together from the same store with the same water. They've been together a little over a week now and no issues. I moved the topminnows into a tank by themselves and the danios and gudgeons have come out of hiding, so this pretty much confirms my suspicions that they're stalking and murdering my fish. Anyone else keep these? Is the world confused and they're actually an African cichlid (kidding)? I am irritated that they ate 25$ worth of fish seemingly overnight. I guess since they're native I could put a hook in them and go bass fishing .

 

Big fish eat little fish, and these fish are not picky about what kind of prey they eat. Even a mild mannered insectivore will not turn down an easy meal of small fish, and IME Fundulus chrysotus isn't really that mild mannered. If you've got a well colored population of them, they are certainly worth their own tank.

 

Not mild mannered indeed! I was not excited to see my danio school cut in half! And I drove an hour each way to get all these fish, since my local store didn't have any and I had to order the danios. I'm super bummed because I like them but now I have nowhere to put them. Can't put them in my 55 because I'd be really mad if they ate my cardinals. I feel like there isn't much accurate information on the internet about these guys. I wouldn't have gotten them if I would have suspected they'd be eating their way through my tank. I guess the good news is they don't live long. These guys are huge so they're probably halfway through their life cycle anyway.

 

I've known F. chrysotus to live for 5 to 7 years. A lot of websites say "killifish only live a couple of years" because of annual species, which live in places in the wild where the water dries up every year. Most aquarium websites are extremely ignorant when it comes to Killies. The bigger and more robust the species, the longer they are likely to live.

In your first post, you said Glowlight Danios. If you meant the real thing, Danio choprae, then they never get very big anyway, and would be a target for a lot of other fish.

 

I've known F. chrysotus to live for 5 to 7 years. A lot of websites say "killifish only live a couple of years" because of annual species, which live in places in the wild where the water dries up every year. Most aquarium websites are extremely ignorant when it comes to Killies. The bigger and more robust the species, the longer they are likely to live.

In your first post, you said Glowlight Danios. If you meant the real thing, Danio choprae, then they never get very big anyway, and would be a target for a lot of other fish.

Well . Yes, they're the orange-y little stripey danios. Well, were. They're definitely half of what they used to be. Maybe I can try to breed the few I have left ?The good news is that I found gudgeon number 4.

I guess maybe the topminnows were eating the danios at night? I never saw them harrassing anyone and the gudgeons were always strutting around the tank in an antagonizing manner. If anyone should have been a snack target I would think it would be them, what with all the pomp and sass.

I asked my husband if he wanted some redfish bait, and he said he'd never paid $12 for mudminnows before, although these "mudminnows" are prettier than the ones we frequently catch in the gulf. I guess I'm stuck with these guys unless I can find someone at the fish store to take them.