Ok this is getting rediculous

[Mustang5L5]

The first group of fry isn't even grown yet! They are only about 1/2" in size and still stay within the parents watch.

Today i just happened to peek in the tank and notice the female guarding a 2nd clutch of eggs....bigger than the first batch!!

I've given away 25-30 of the fry and used 10 as feeders and still have 25 fry in the tank that are about 1/2" in lenght. They venture out on their own as there is nothing in the tank big enough to eat them now.

I can't keep up with this.

Is there a fish/invert/etc that can prey on the con fry and will not be killed by the parents??

I like my cons....i just don't like the billions of fry they produce!

 

[Patrick333]

get a fish that is awake at night and sleep at day forget wat thats called. it will get em while there sleeping

 

[Mustang5L5]

That's a good idea. I notice that the cons sleep at night and other night fish can roam their territory with no probs. My ottos always clean the tank at night and i notice they never get bothered.

Thing is the fry tend to sleep right under the parents. Not sure how any predator would get them then

 

[Patrick333]

stick a few night walkers in there and they cand distract them or something. i dont know mine sleep under their parents too

 

[Doggfather]

are you talking about nocturnal fish? like catfish

 

[Patrick333]

nocturnal is the word i couldnt remember what the word was

 

[Mustang5L5]

Yeah but a catfish or any other bottom dweller would get harassed by the cons during the day. I had a pleco take a beating from them. My LARGE red claw crab is missing a claw after trying to stare down my 3" male.

RIght now the fry stay with the male most of the time and the female fans the eggs. They really don't fear anything in the tank so they sometimes leave the eggs unattended and both stay with the fry.

I'm hoping my larger mystery snails might eat the eggs but anytime a snail gets close the cons pick them up and carry them off to the other side of the tank if they are too large for them to eat.

I just took a peek in the tank after lights out to find the male and female sleeping over their new eggs with the 25-30 fry left also sleeping in the same pit right next to the eggs.

This is gonna be interesting when the fry hatch. I'll have fry of different sizes swimming around.

I need to find an effective predator

 

[Dragonscales]

maybe get an eel? They can burrow and hunt that way, who knows? Maybe an eel could get smart enough to burrow straight under the fence and into the chicken coop none the wiser to mum and dad?

 

[iloveyou]

why dont u jus leave em...

see how many survive...

maybe the older con babies will eat the new ones.. who knows what the parents will do..

maybe theyll eat em...

if they get too stressed with too many babies theyll jus eat em...

if your cons catch anything eating their babies they will most likely go nuts... id jus leave em.. if it starts becoming too much give em to pet store

 

[Wilsta]

get a pictus catfish they would like a little convict snack!

 

[digital_run]

I've got 5 pictus cats. that get some con fry...they love it and they dont take long to do it...but depending on the size of your tank...ull want atleast 3 of them...and i dont think that they would be able to handle a con unless it was a fair size...id have to agree with iloveu....see what happens...i pretty sure she will eat the first batch of cons once the new eggs start to hatch...but i may be wrong...whatever happens good luck