Baby Fish........

[leanne*fish]

hey a friend of mine has some baby fish he says i can have some for my tank my only worries are will my tigger barbs eat them??

 

[spudgun2k]

hey a friend of mine has some baby fish he says i can have some for my tank my only worries are will my tigger barbs eat them??

best advice i have had regarding baby fish and letting them into tanks where they could possibly be eaten, is check the size of the babies and the size of your barbs mouths, if they wont fit in should not be a problem. i was worried about my first bunch of fry, i would double check off others with more knowledge than me, but tiger barbs are nippy and this may cause stress to very young fry. you could get a breading net/tub and place them in there (depaending on amounts of fry) for the time being then release at a later date when they are a big bigger.

good luck

 

[sic0198]

What kimd of fish are you thinking of getting?

 

[karin15]

all you have to do is go buy a $5 box net or a fry seperator i cant remeber what there called, just set it up there maby 5x5x5 inches you clip it into the front end of your tank monitor your little fry and feed them seperatly even put a little gravel in there... works every time
once they get big enough to eat flake food release them/unless there still to small to get eaten by what ever you have in there.

most pet stores have them but you can check online too.

 

[leanne*fish]

thanks for the advise my mate has them in his tank but im just concerned as the barbs are the only ones in the tank at the mo and i dont want them to be agressive they are baby mollies

 

[karin15]

thanks for the advise my mate has them in his tank but im just concerned as the barbs are the only ones in the tank at the mo and i dont want them to be agressive they are baby mollies

the general rule when it comes to baby fish or any fish for that matter, if it can fit in a tankmates mouth don't mix them, with few exeptions, barbs are not usaly a fish to pass up the opertunity to eat a fry.

 

[DarkEntity]

Ive seen Tigers get small fish stuck in their mouthes that were way to big to eat, but didnt stop them trying

 

[White Whale]

And fry are so cute. How do you stop yourself from pinching them to death?

 

[karin15]

Ive seen Tigers get small fish stuck in their mouthes that were way to big to eat, but didnt stop them trying

well if your fish do that its a sighn you need to feed them more, my bichir dose the same thing he trys to eat fish that are to big if i skip his meals.

 

[DarkEntity]

Ive seen Tigers get small fish stuck in their mouthes that were way to big to eat, but didnt stop them trying

well if your fish do that its a sighn you need to feed them more, my bichir dose the same thing he trys to eat fish that are to big if i skip his meals.

I said "Ive seen" not i keep. If you check my sig you will see i dont keep Tigers

Also certain fish will eat even if not hungry.

 

[Ben L]

Synodontis cats and midas cichlids are testament to that you can keep on feeding them and theyll jus keep on eating ive seen contractus look like a tennis ball before lol.

 

[karin15]

Synodontis cats and midas cichlids are testament to that you can keep on feeding them and theyll jus keep on eating ive seen contractus look like a tennis ball before lol.

yeah i know my syno cat is like that too, but tiger barbs? I know if you dont feed them they will tear fins and tails and attack other fish

 

[Tommy Gunnz]

Well, I have a school of 8 tiger barbs in with my cichlid tank and I am pretty sure that they were the ones picking off the fry in the tank as I was running to get my net to rescue them. I dont know how much they are into eating other fish though, but like everyone has said, if it fits into a mouth, then it will probrably end up in one....

Still, the tiger barbs are always going to be prone to nipping fins and I do not think this is a behavior that is brought on by under feeding them. Tiger Barbs get pretty darn big as well so that can be a problem later on since they can nip harder and with larger 'bites'. My 8 tiger barbs have to be over two and a half inches long and at least an inch and a half from top to bottom. They have the same body as the tinfoil barbs or similar to a silver dollar which is weird for me to see since I usually only see them as juvies at a fish store and they have that sort of longer body type.

The good news for you though is that molly fry, and most others, grow VERY fast into something too large for most community fish to get their lips wrapped around. I used to have a 55 gallon livebearer breeding tank and it only took maybe three weeks before I could be relatively confident enough to put them back into my main tank. A breeder's net or box is a good idea since it will ensure that your molly fry are accustomed to the tanks water types and parameters that you have on a regular basis because they are in the tank, but just seperated from the rest of the population.

Also, and this is not to say it is wrong to keep them in freshwater, but to get the maximum lifespan and potential size out of most mollies, a brackish water tank is the best way to go about it. Of course, they are almost always sold in plain old freshwater and then put into a freshwater tank so it isnt a really big issue. They do get a lot bigger in brackish tanks though. I have seen, with my own eyes, a molly live for weeks in a completely saltwater tank and I am sure that they could have lasted longer had I not taken them out (I used them to test my SW tank's cycle to see if it would have a mini-cycle or if the tank was ready for fish to be put in). In fact, I think some people breed the mollies just to have a live food source for saltwater fish since they can last so long in the tank and do not die from being in there before they serve their purpose. Of course, I do not really condone this, but see how it could help out even though feeding freshwater fish to saltwater fish is not really a good idea in the first place.

 

[karin15]

hmm interesting, I alwais thought they were more like tetra's? but then again ive never had tigger barbs or tetteras

 

[Lynden]

I have literally hucked Mollies from freshwater to saltwater many times. They don't even notice it, and I find that mollies are far better suited to saltwater than to fresh or brackish.

-Lynden