Tiny fish with big predators, possible?

  • We are currently upgrading MFK. thanks! -neo
Chicxulub said:
+1 lol

I plan on doing this, too. Once my fish are all about 18" or so, I plan to add an enormous school of tiny surface fish and a big school of tiny mid level fish to my tank to add color and movement. I know they'll disappear over time, but I'm fine with that.
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Rob I like the idea of your big ATFs with a huge shoal of small tetras. I think that any surface fish, like hatchetfish for example, would be easy targets though. Schooling tetras would use their shoaling tendencies as their defense mechanism just as in nature.
 
Chicxulub said:
+1 lol

I plan on doing this, too. Once my fish are all about 18" or so, I plan to add an enormous school of tiny surface fish and a big school of tiny mid level fish to my tank to add color and movement. I know they'll disappear over time, but I'm fine with that.
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Yea it will look awesome if it works :) and I don't mind replacing them over time but I don't want to spend £100 on fish and have none the next day lol


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Nim Dibbley said:
If the catfish is nocternal i think it would still eat your neons or whatever while they are sleeping. Since the arowana in that picture is diurnal the neons at least can dart away if he closes in.

I saw a video like that on a post here on MFK. the OP claimed that the aro would occasionally eat one of the neons, but for the most part didn't bother. I can't find the thread...but it was here on MRK.

I don't think that would work with a catfish.
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Yea I'm pretty confident it would work with my aro and ATF but I'm thinking the same with the catfish ATM, am i right in thinking neons and that type of thing sleep/rest on the bottom at night?


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monsterkeeper87 said:
Yea I'm pretty confident it would work with my aro and ATF but I'm thinking the same with the catfish ATM, am i right in thinking neons and that type of thing sleep/rest on the bottom at night?


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I don't trust anything smaller with the catfish. So the neons will most likely got eaten next morning.
 
Why has nobody suggested Mbuna yet? they can fit in tiny holes in rocks and they just dart into the rocks at any sign of danger, you could literally breed a huge colony of Mbuna and keep them wiht lots of rocks and one or a few large fish. The large fish would not even bother with the effort of trying to catch the Mbuna from in tiny rock crevices.
 
Last May I put 10 minnows in for my African Clawed Frog. 8 were missing the next day and I still have two almost a year later. They got pretty big.
 
robmcd said:
Rob I like the idea of your big ATFs with a huge shoal of small tetras. I think that any surface fish, like hatchetfish for example, would be easy targets though. Schooling tetras would use their shoaling tendencies as their defense mechanism just as in nature.
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Thanks man! I hope it works out for me, I really want to do this once I get my 510 up and running.

That's still coming by the way, I just don't get enough done in any one sitting to warrant an update. With work, a new kid and school, I normally only get about a half an hour free a day to really mess around with it. I'm getting about far enough to do an update again I guess.
 
Well not quite tetras, but still small fish with big ones. The "big" 5 spot has maxed out at 5". The jar is 18“ and the Atlantic tarpon are around 14". Could easily be a snack for someone. Sometimes it works out, nobody really bothers anybody in my tank, I hope it continues this way. I consider myself lucky. uploadfromtaptalk1365258184954.jpguploadfromtaptalk1365258238002.jpguploadfromtaptalk1365258284312.jpg

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Sometimes with really big fish they ignore tetras and danios and small stuff. My tilapia will do this I usually keep a half dozen minnows in his tank, but randomly he will get mad and kill them all in a matter of hours. I tried 25 neons with my 12" rhom and they disappeared the first night. Catfish are like vacuumes and I'd suspect they can catch tetras. Danios might have a shot since I find they stay near the surface even when sleeping versus most tetras sleep on the bottom
 
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