Debate on large fish and crayfish eating smaller fish.

My own experience - Two angels raised from the size of a quarter to about 4 inches in six months. They were never fed live food. The moment I put some platy fries in the tank the angels went after and ate some of them. So IMO instinct sometimes overrides everything else.
 
I had the same experience with angels. They had been always fed fisk flakes until the day I added a barbeled leaf fish to their tank. I put some feeder guppies for the leaffish and the angels started chasing and eating the guppies. I was surprised about it.

Also, last week I lost about 8 feeder guppies in the travel from the lfs to my house because the trip took too long. After I removed them from the bag, I threw them into my tank as a snack for 2 bichirs I'm keeping, and to my surprise here came a comet goldfish and ate the dead guppie.

I will also back up Ohbly's theory about injured fish. My leaffish will always focus his attention on a feeder guppie that swims erratically until he can catch it.
 
I have had personal experiences that a crayfish will try and catch any fish in it's vacinity. I personally witnessed them standing very still with their claws raised and open wide. When a fish got near their claws, they would try their best to grab them, often succeeding.

I'm not going to ever add crayfish to any aquarium unless I have larger predatory fish in it. In that case it would be the crayfish that get eaten.
 
I have a friend that actually 'de-claws' his crayfish to avoid problems with tank mates. They grow back in a short time and he just does it again. As far as fish that have never eaten other fish.... instinct. I'm sure it's just natural behavior to eat other fish.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
AquariaCentral.com
Top Bottom