IDK.. but if you can explaine why my aba aba knife bit a female guppy in half... yet ignores the fry and males which are much more suitably sized snacks... we might come to an ephiphany! lol.. BUt in general convicts make poor feeders ect because they are just to darn smart.
Big fish eat little fish, well...not those little fish.
- Thread starter eatingleg4peanut
- Start date
Dude I've wondered this for so long, my oscars would always look at small SAs when I added them but never tried to eat them. I've wondered if they somehow knew the difference between "dumb fish" like barbs and such and "smart fish" like other cichlids. I also get up in my oscars' face when they eye new fish and sort of let them know don't touch like how they defend territory just in case and I think the message gets across.
Holy crap, I do the same thing to my jack when I've added new fish. If I see him approach/stalk them I get up in his face. Its worked for me too.
I think that to some extent fishes instincts kick in and tell it to "take" certain actions to assure it's survival. IMO a fish is far more inclined to attack and kill a smaller fish that it percieves to be a potential future threat than a larger fish that it does not view as competition.
Make sense, kind of like General (was it Patton or McAurthor) who said after WWII Let me take a brigade through Russia right now! We are going to have to fight them eventually, so we might as well do it now while it is not yet even a challenge for us.
Make sense, kind of like General (was it Patton or McAurthor) who said after WWII Let me take a brigade through Russia right now! We are going to have to fight them eventually, so we might as well do it now while it is not yet even a challenge for us.
that would make sense to me, but is the opposite of what happens. A 1-2" barb is never gonna be a threat, but cons, texas, cuban, firemouth and chocolate (future threats) have all been untouched.
eatingleg4peanut;4878740; said:
I agree. Sometimes this simply does not hold water. I have had in two seperate tanks (actually one tank and one pond) an unexplainable situation involving Gar, Bowfin and Bluegill. I put a bunch of small bluegill fry that I caught from my farm pond into the two Gar/ Bowfin tank/ pond. This was strictly done as a source of food.
In both cases, the bowfin and gar tore the vast majority of the bluegill up devouring them as food. In both cases, the largest of the bluegills all got eaten, and the smallest of the bluegills are still currently living at peace with less than no aggression between them. Same species, so no threat factor. I would say "fish farming" in that the predators are allowing the little ones to "fatten up" like the witch did to Hansel and Gretal, but we are closing in on eight months of being kept together. I could not possibly figure what is up with that!
God I hope that they don't act like criminals in the penal system. I would hate to think that the smallest bluegills in each of the tanks are just being kept alive to "Eh? Service the big fish". That would really suck! LITERALLY!
I have seen piranhas coexisted with neon tetras and guppies with no problems. Same thing with silver aros with tiger barbs....however I won't suggest that this combo can work for everyone!
I have a tank full of 2 large Jack Dempseys, BRP, a sweet red tail botia loach, pleco, 5 rosey barbs, tiger barbs, africans, and little cory cats. I always kept the light on and no one was eaten. Except last night i noticed my first spot of algae so I turned off the light the first time in a year. Woke up to only one tiger barb. Two of my seven month old barbs vanished.. the light is staying on....
