View Full Version : Guppy lives happily with cichlids
Hunter
08-07-2003, 9:27 PM
The Guppy is still living happily with my red devil, tiger oscar, jack dempsy, green terror, and pleco.....
any thoughts to why they wont eat him...i really dont like him, why wont he be eaten...
Ive been feedin them blood worms and pellets.. But they wont go to the surface to feed, they wait till it sinks...how do i get them to go up?
And how do I get them to eat the dam n guppy
Stop feeding them.
I have a trimac that let a goldfish live in his tank for several weeks before finally eating him. I usually don't feed him feeder fish so he might not have recognized the food at first.
Not feeding them for a few days will probably help them come up to the food too. My pikes used to wait until the food sunk too, but after a couple of days without feeding they got brave.
I don't feed my fish feeders too. If they don't like some fishes, they will just kill them, but not eating them. However, it takes them close to a month before they all decided to kill my Firemouth. *sigh* I still don't know who is the killer...either my GT, Con, or JD (possibly my mix blood parrot).
DarthV
08-08-2003, 10:03 AM
My next door neighbor has a 9" red belly piranha that has had a single tetra simming in the same tank for the last 2-3 years...even after a move the piranha still hasn't eaten it...fish can do some strange stuff sometimes.
Tiger15
08-08-2003, 7:21 PM
Do you believe that a 3-foot Arrowana can live peacefully in a tank with hundreds of cardinal Tetra?
I visited the Dallas World Aquarium back in March and saw a 500+ gal tank housed with several hundred cardinal Tetra, a breeding pair of Thorichthys arium, several Discus, giant pleco and a 3-foot Aisan red Arrowana cruising in the same tank. This is a public aquarium and this tank has fish from different regions and continents. I asked the aqaurium attendent why the arrowana won't eat the tetra. He said that the Arrownan eats only worms.
Sheessh....I fed my Red and Green Arowanas feeder goldfish when they were just 7" big.
AikidoGuy
08-09-2003, 12:59 AM
I have some silly glass cats that live with a Lyoni, a spectabalis, and a citrinellum.. Mojo has a few gourami that live in his pond with DOZENS of full grown nasty cichlids. Seen it myself.. the big fish dont even bother them.
dave76
08-09-2003, 2:11 AM
That aquarium in dallas is cool, I was looking out the window of my building at work today watching them add on to it. :D The saltwater predator tank is my favorite. Lionfish are kewl. The amazon river basin with the red tail cats, the turtles and all the peacock bass are really cool as well. But what I dug the most was the pond that had the 3-4" arowanas and the stingrays in it.
oh yea I forgot to mention the panoramic saltwater tank that you walk through. Man that place is cool but they charge to d*mn much for admission.
I have had similar instances where a much smaller fish would live peacefully with larger Cichlids. I put a couple hundred Citrinellum fry in the 300 gallon tank with the 16" & 14" Umbee and they were ignored. As Aikido Guy pointed out right now there are six or seven Gourami in the pond with a lot of other larger fish. Here's a photo of a "contradiction in theory" of who will get along in the same tank.
http://www.aquamojo.com/misc/What's%20wrong.jpg
BTW....using feeder fish is just plain dumb. It's a great way to kill your fish with a nasty bacterial disease.
Tiger15
08-09-2003, 6:35 AM
Yes, the Dallas World Aquarium is nice but I agree the price is steep because it is not a big aquarium. I think I paid $12 for the entry plus another $5 for parking. I like the Mbuna tank that is placed outdoor. There is another public aquairum in Fair Park , Dallas (Not sure about the name but I guess it is where the Cotton Bowl is located) that is cheaper and more interesting to me because it has display of many fresh water tanks. There is one tank with CA cichlids housed with wild Swordtails which are feeder fish for CAs in home aquarium. Another African tank is housed with Malawyan, Tanganyikan and Victorian cichlids all in one tank. The leulupi were sneaking in and out of the rock along side foot long Frontosa and large Haps. Dallas likes to mix fish like salad bowl. There appears to be no predation though and I guess because the tanks are big (500 gal+) and the fish are well fed.
Tiger15
08-09-2003, 6:49 AM
My belief is that if natural predators were not raised with feeder fish, they may lose their instinct to eat small fish. I have one tank housed with an 11-inch Frontosa with 1 to 2 inch lamprologus species, and the small lamprologus swim casually in front of the Frontosa big mouth with no fear. I even went away for 2 to 3 weeks vacation each year without feeding my tank and I didn't lose any fish to predation.
I used to own large Jack Dempsey from baby to adult and never fed him with feeder fish. Finally, I traded the fish with a LFS and the people there tried to feed him with guppies and goldfish. He just let the feeders swim in front of his face and showed no interest at all. He ate only pellet food.
I used to have at least 2 dozen guppies is my 125. No one bothered them until I got my clown-knife fish. Then they were gone within 2 weeks.
I have tried to skip a feeding to get my fish to come to the surface to feed and they started in on each other. Maybe that trick doesn't always work? Any other ideas on getting them to the surface?
BTW, if you're ever in Gatlinburg, TN, go to Ripley's Aquarium of the Smokies. I know it's $16 to get in, but it's truly amazing. They even have 2 restaurants in there because it's so big!
dave76
08-11-2003, 8:47 AM
I have not been to the fair park aquarium since I was a kid. I will have to take my kids there next weekend. I must admit I was fairly dissapointed when I went to the dallas world aquarium. I think they should have called it the dallas world aviary, as that is most of what is in there. I was hoping for something like the fair park aquarium. When I saw that mbuna tank in front I got excited, then I went inside. My feet were stepped on several times in the narrow walkways in the aviary by people, and I had to dodge all the people with strollers. It was just extremely diffucult to manuver in there. I think I would have been much happier if I had gone during a weekday, but I dont think I am taking a day off of work just to go there. I mean what kind of public aquarium doesnt even have a school of piranha?
I'm telling you, go to Gatlinburg. Not only do they have a pirahna tank, they also have a barracuda tank.
I've heard the Newport Aquarium in northern KY is decent, but I haven't been there.
I know it might be difficult to get away to Gatlinburg with the onset of the new school year(my oldest starts Kindergarten this year), but maybe next summer!
fish_e_o
08-17-2003, 1:30 AM
ever wonder how they clean those huge tanks?(gaint siphon?) anybody actually know?
peifc
08-17-2003, 12:52 PM
Originally posted by fish_e_o
ever wonder how they clean those huge tanks?(gaint siphon?) anybody actually know?
Correct, giant siphon. I watched that on Dicovery channel. They need diver go into the aquarium with a big siphon to clean the tank. Most aquarium is near water/ocean. The Discovery Channel showed that they use the ocean water to cycle and keep the water natural. I don't know how they do it with the freshwater aquarium. I guess they will just have to use their tap water or just having some kind of big tank cycling constantly. Just a guess. :)
dave76
08-17-2003, 3:24 PM
I am sure that they use some kind of RO preperation. Not all saltwater aquariums are near the ocean. Dallas world aquarium for example, and if it was they would not use the water from the gulf of mexico it looks like toilet water.
Originally posted by dave76
I am sure that they use some kind of RO preperation. Not all saltwater aquariums are near the ocean. Dallas world aquarium for example, and if it was they would not use the water from the gulf of mexico it looks like toilet water.
:D That's why I said most aquariums. The aquarium in NY, MD, Singapore, and a few that I know of are located near the ocean.