Will my 7 inch NTT Dat eat 4 inch loaches??

[Arowanana]

I want to put some 4 inch loaches in with my 7 inch NTT. My dat has a huuuuge mouth so I was wondering if anybody thought this would be a bad idea.

 

[ewurm]

I'd say that is very risky for both fish. If the Dat swallows a loach, the fish might get stuck on it's subocular spines and kill both of them

 

[arkmann]

Based on my experience, it won't. I once had 4 x 8" dats and 3 x 3" clown loaches and they seemed fine.

 

[FunWow!]

I had a bunch of dats 7-11inch range in with some clowns....Most didnt bother them but i had this one Indo dat that kept trying to eat them and they were 4inches. Dat was 9inches by the way. I removed the clowns. If the dat wants them you will know it as soon as they start swimming but it could be to late.

 

[Crispy]

I got 5x 4-5" loaches and a 7" NGT. He doesn't seem interested at all in the loaches. My 15" silver aro doesn't even mind the loaches.

 

[L.BelcherII]

I have 25 4"+ CLs in with 5 to 9" IT with no issues.

But separately I had a 4" NTT suck down a 3" CL when I first introduced them like it was candy. It all depends on the fish.

 

[SFury]

It depends on the dat. Some dats are more predatory than others, and prefer to eat bite sized tankmates.

I've kept dats with of various sizes when I had to, and with many other fish with no aggression whatsoever.

I had one IT a few years back that would eat everything that was bite sized. It tried to eat my freshwater stingrays tail one night out of the blue and that was the end of that. Apparently the tail looked delicious.

I've never had any other dat that was anywhere near as aggressive towards non-dats since then. I have 7 dats ranging from 3-6" now living with two 3-4" baby endlicheris and have had no aggression whatsoever.

 

[JakeH]

No idea, but a 4" CL would be a pricey feeder...