What killed my catfish?

[nfras]

I had 3 oto catfish for a time, one died fairly soon after introduction but the other two were doing fine. Then one disappeared, a thorough search of the tank produced nothing. The last one was thriving and doing a great job of keeping the tank clean, but Saturday morning I was doing a vaccuum of the tank and shifted some driftwood only to find the decapitated body of the last oto and a few inches away, his head. The night before he was algae sucking like nobody's business.
The main culprits are the golden gourami which tend to be the most aggressive fish in the tank. Is a gourami capable of this?

[Abbeys_Mom]

Hmmm. Sound odd for him to go that quick. Did he show any strange behavior? I have often suspected my fish of killing each other, but am sure now that they don't kill each other if they are healthy (most of the time ;) ).

[jman]

he could've sucked up the wrong thing but for real i don't have a clue.

[nfras]

It would have to have been something really bad to have taken his head off!

No strange behaviour, no poor readings in the tank, no sign of disease, nothing. I can only assume that he was attacked.

[Glasstapper]

do you have mollies in there? I've heard some horror stories about these supposed peaceful mollies that eat everyone in the tank but act like saints while you're watching them.

I hope you find the culprit. Oto cats are adorable!

[nfras]

yes, I have 2 black mollies. It would be a shame to lose them as my wife picked them. So, it's down to either the gourami or the mollies.
What do you think I should do, get rid of the likely offenders and get some more otos or get another detritivore? Any suggestions?

[Glasstapper]

if you haven't had any other signs of fish being attacked, maybe you could try some more otos. No one really knows what happened to other ones, and oto cats usually aren't seen as a threatening fish by other fish, so it's a possibility that something else may have happened (although I have no clue how a decapitation can happen). Gouramis and mollies don't have teeth and a decapitation would need to be done by something sharp, I would think. And the bodies weren't eaten, so I don't know.

Or, you could go with one of the smaller plecos that only get about 6 inches.
Good luck to you, and keep an eye on your suspects.