Big Fish, Little Fish

[benzjamin13]

I have to ask...I've seen some people here with some awesomely stocked tanks. Some of which contain smaller fish with large predatory fish. How does it work out? Do the smaller one eventually disappear or do the larger fish leave them alone or do they get hit and spat out?

Ex. Large Silver Arowana (let's say 18") with smaller Dats and Clown Loaches (let's say 6"-8")

 

[Johny]

well they were prob purcahsed at the same time as juvies but since dats are slow growing the aro grew faster but didnt attack them coz they were together all their life maybe?

 

[midnight]

my 28" silver tries to eat my two 10" pacus
does that count?

 

[IKeepPacu]

i think it boils down to a few things....socializing the fish from a very young age with fish of different sizes, keeping all fish extremely well fed on a nice varied diet a few times daily so their generally always full and happy (without OVER feeding) and just being smart with your overall choices, like not adding neons no matter how timid your 12" red devil may seem.

the only fish ive honestly lost to being attacked/eaten was strangely enough a ropefish, yet not my bichirs. he must have looked like a giant worm to one of my big fish one night.

 

[woofy]

i know what ur saying as we have been looking at our own tanks wondering the same thing as we have this scenario. We have fish that can easidly eat their tankmates if they wanted to but i guess since they grew together or the smaller one was bigger for most of the larger fishes life until it cuaght up to it and got bigger, they i guess didnt consider the little tank mate food. they are also VERY well fed

 

[MN_Rebel]

Ive heard about feeder fish survivors stories.

 

[CichlidAddict]

Well, I had seven 4" clown loaches disappear in mine. The culprit is either a 16" fire eel or a 7" ven. pike.