Chance of success?

[Guyb93]

Currently I’m feeding up my acara with live foods as they approach maturity ready for the pairing and breeding process . I’m also bolstering my group of Colombian Tetra and introducing a group of emperor tetra . Very hard to find mature tetra for sale but can get 1 inch babies fairly cheap , the Colombians with the denser bodies and 7 full grown Colombians already in the tank had an advantage over the emperors who we’re all going in as a fresh shoal , it’s day 3 after adding and I’m 2 emperor tetra down to the acara all Colombians safe , the emperors are down to 6 now but il thinking if I add say 7 per week for a month I’m assuming over time I’d have a large group of emperors who have enough size diversity to not be food like the shoal of Colombians, I know there is a slight size difference between the 2 but I’m confident mature emperors are large enough.
Is that a plausible theory? Or a slow way of buying feeder fish

 

[GaryE]

You may find the emperors are as territorial as the acara. Latecomers will have a hard time establishing turf as the best will already be taken, and that'll create conflict. Emperor tetras are not typical in behaviour, and aren't a Characin I would keep with Cichlids. The basic rule of stocking is not to combine fish that claim the same turf, and emperors like their bottom of the tank kingdoms.
You may actually have the emperors getting knocked off because of competition and not hunger. They are not shoaling tetras except under stress.

 

[Guyb93]

You may find the emperors are as territorial as the acara. Latecomers will have a hard time establishing turf as the best will already be taken, and that'll create conflict. Emperor tetras are not typical in behaviour, and aren't a Characin I would keep with Cichlids. The basic rule of stocking is not to combine fish that claim the same turf, and emperors like their bottom of the tank kingdoms.
You may actually have the emperors getting knocked off because of competition and not hunger. They are not shoaling tetras except under stress.

Feeding isn’t an issue as for some reason everything feeds side by side no aggression and they feed on food that the others don’t even see because of the size difference, I haven’t witnessed the deaths just notice the numbers drown , they aren’t restricted to the top swim they do separate and venture but you can’t stop predators being predatory but they give the chase up fairly fast I’m wondering if the large Colombians have picked them off rather than the acara , I see what you mean about the long term for the fish there not the densest or aggressive of tetra , my theory was that by keep adding smaller fish the larger ones would be less likely to be eaten because there’s easier meals and give them time to establish a group while the weaker smaller ones get eaten , maybe pick a different tetra ? Maybe a skirt or bueno Aries but the situation would be the same initially I’d have to get juveniles that would loose numbers and I refuse to grow them out separately I’d rather persist

 

[Guyb93]

Massive success in a way .. added 16 emperor tetra and it’s worked beyond my expectations non have been eaten non have died and it’s removed the stress that the original 6 had , the shear numbers and movement of the shoal of 21 is just too much for any predatory cichlids to even see what’s happening the confusion alone has them dropped jawed , it’s kind of perfect to what how a shoal works the confusion the movement it’s something you don’t see until you add a large group to a tank with natural predators

 

[GaryE]

Give it time. Those Cichlids aren't really predatory - they're acaras. And the emperors will sort things out as they will. It takes about 6 months to see how such a thing works.

 

[Guyb93]

Give it time. Those Cichlids aren't really predatory - they're acaras. And the emperors will sort things out as they will. It takes about 6 months to see how such a thing works.

They are acara type cichlids the two larger ones in the tank are blue acara X green terror so not a typical predator fish but the rivulatus is arguably a predator fish