Ok, so my lil jack dempseys are chewin' the hell out of the females tail, at first i assumed it was the male but i always see them pickin at her and her tail is looking pretty ratty. What can i do!?!?
babies pickin on momma
- Thread starter TBergy
- Start date
What are you feeding them? Generally when the fry do that they are eating the slime coat of the parent for lack of other nutrition. In the wild parents will either chew and spit food out for the fry or stir a clud from the deitris on the river/lake bottom. Try cruching some flake food very fine, put it with some water in a turkey baster and spray it into the cloud of fry. If you want to do it 100%...get baby brine shrimp or a product called Cyclopeze. Same procedure for feeding.
Oh, they are far past the point of being fry, the largest ones at about 1.25" smaller around .5-.75" i just have no idea what to do with them, maybe feeders for my snapper. Maybe i'll try and find another tank for them.
The answer stands. Like any small animal, the baby learns eating behavior from the parent. And with that alway looks for the easy way out...which is mooching off (literally) mom or pop. Provide them with some food of their own and the behavior should lighten up a bit.
I've started feeding them a lot more often than their folks, they eat anything that hits the tank, it's funny watching such a lil fish swim around with a pellet 5x the size of it's mouth in front of it, greed little things... but they've been getting their fair share of flakes, hopefully they will leave mom alone.
Yeah, thats what i figured, if only my 75 gal wasn't an hour and a half away, they could go in there, the pair look like they are getting ready to breed again, digging a hole and fighting off the little ones from getting anywhere near, i really wasn't prepared for breeding, i bought the male from petsmart labeled as a "green terror" but as he got bigger, i found he was definately not 
maybe when i go back to school some of the lil ones will come with me, i really want to take this tank from my folks house but i don't see that happening. well thanks for your guys input.
Travis
maybe when i go back to school some of the lil ones will come with me, i really want to take this tank from my folks house but i don't see that happening. well thanks for your guys input.Travis