Deaths In My Tank :(

Walked in the room twice yesterday to find the clown loach and yoyo feasting on firstly a black phantom tetra then one of my golden barbs. I have removed the 3 to a separate tank to prevent them killing any more. The clown was due to be picked up today anyway but I am going to get rid of both the yo yo's too now. Can I just take them to a fish shop or do I need to ring them first ?
I don't know what has happened to suddenly make them do this but it's spoiling my enjoyment of the tank. We still have the shark and the sucking loach for now, I hope they don't cause any trouble. I'm looking forward to getting a nice little shoal of something pretty without the stress of finding dead bodies.

I agree with Colin, the fish are likely to have died, or at least were sick and lying on the bottom, and the loaches just spied their chance of a meal. All fish will eat dead fish. And with loaches living on the bottom that is their natural place to look for food.
The fish have just been through an upheaval and, considering the poor choice of fish, I wouldn't be surprised if the previous owner had neglected the tank too. It is possible that the reason there were too few of the shoaling fish is that there had been full shoals but most of them had died, meaning that the fish you got with the tank were quite old and therefore more likely to succumb to the move.

So long as you rule out poor water conditions (by testing for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH), and do a water change (always advisable when fish die for whatever reason) then I would put it down to just one of those things.






As for rehoming fish, always contact the shop first as not all shops will take fish in.

The pH is usually not a problem. I just mentioned it to be on the safe side. There is always the possibility that something has made it change eg new decor that dissolves and pushes the pH up (limestone and coral are the main problems here).


And just to check - anyone sprayed anything in the room? Any plug in air fresheners? These can get into the tank water and affect the fish.

The pH is fine, though without a reading from a few days ago we can't say if it has changed.

I remembered about the sprays this morning talking with my mother, so I thought it was worth asking. After her stroke, my mother now can't get to the hairdresser so we've just found a mobile hairdresser. She came on Monday and used she used hairspray. It wasn't important this week (long story but she was stranded upstairs due to a problem with the stairlift) but next time the hairdresser comes, she'll use the kitchen. I have 2 fish tanks in the kitchen so I won't let her use hairspray in there. Or the dining room, as my main tank is in there. And my husband won't let her use it in the lounge in case it gets in his hifi. So where can she spray it?  As you can tell, sprays have been on my mind this morning 

I think it was just the fact it was two in one day made me really suspicious . Hopefully I won't have any more for a while