Something that'll eat fry babies

[Nyte]

Hello Everyone.

Soon, I'm going to have to add some fish to my tank that will eat platy fry. I hate to do it, but my platys are getting pretty boring and eventually there is going to be a problem with babies.

Here's my tank stats:

29 gallon
Planted
5 platys (1 male, 4 females)
3 fry that are going to make it for sure, they're too big to eat. Which will go back to the LFS if any turn out to be male.
2 neons (I know they should be in a school, I NEVER get a good batch). Started out with 10 and all them died within a week despite ammonia & nitrite being 0 and nitrate 5 ppm.
3 small saes (which will be moved to a larger tank when nessessary)
1 oto (he schools with the saes)

So I would love to get some blue rams, and I know they'll eat the fry but my ph is high and my water is super hard.

Any reccomendations of fish that'll eat my babies and liven up the tank? Maybe I'm already overstocked but the water readings are great.

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

Im not sure about fish that'll eat them for sure but what i do when it comes to unwanted fry is fish them out in a net and put them on the freezer shelf in the net for about 5-7 seconds- they die in seconds of this and from what i've heard its quite humane as the cold temp just slows down their metabolism and they fall asleep for ever...I then just wash them down the sink- i only do this with fry 2 weeks or younger old so i wouldn't know what to do in this if they were older and how much longer they would need in the freezer- hope this helps you a bit .

 

[Nyte]

Thanks for the reply! I was hoping to not have to kill them myself. I don't have the heart for that. I cried and felt terrible when I had to euthanize my chinese algae eater.

 

[Raechal]

Thanks for the reply! I was hoping to not have to kill them myself. I don't have the heart for that. I cried and felt terrible when I had to euthanize my chinese algae eater.

NEVER freeze a fish. It is not humane at all. Read the sticky on euthanization if you are going to kill them.

If you leave the fry in there, the platies should eat most of them. Try finding a bumblebee catfish. They are very low maintenance as they are hidden all day and only come out at night. They only get like 4 inches long at the max but I have mine for a little less than a year and he is only 2 inches long. They LOVE fry and he'd probably gobble them all up in one night. My molly gave birth to tons of fry in my 29 gallon and my catfish ate all but 7 that I saved.

 

[Angry_Platy]

NOOOOOO....do not freeze any fish.....fry or not. It is the most cruel form of euthanasia.

SHAME shame shame

 

[mands]

any kind of tetra will eat your fry even angel fish will eat fry toooo

hope this helps


mands

 

[Nyte]

I'm not going to freeze anybody, not to worry everyone. I think it would break my heart. Even thinking about getting a fish that'll eat the fry makes me a bit sad, but not sure what else to do.

I hesitate to get angels, even though I LOOOOOOVE koi angles. They'd be a bit cramped wouldn't they?

 

[wrs]

well, Id say if any are female get rid of them! They will make more fry, not the males, the more females the more babies.

angels are to big or that tank. Plus tetras usually dont eat fry after a week as they get to big for them with most of the smaller species.

 

[troutfly]

I here giant danios would work well for "discarding" unwanted fry, I had 4 in my old 29gal. and had to remove them when I found them eliminating my sword tail fry before I could seperate them. I hope this helps some.......

 

[Tokis-Phoenix]

NOOOOOO....do not freeze any fish.....fry or not. It is the most cruel form of euthanasia.

SHAME shame shame

Actually i was told it was by another fish forum i used to go on, but if you say its not humane....I feel realy bad now
I just always thought it was humane after reading a long thread and poll on it from another fish forum site...

 

[Angry_Platy]

What happens is that the ice crystals start to form in their bodies before they die. These form sharp needles which pierces the fish from the outsde in. Imagine the pain

Fry will survive out of water longer than most people think....hence they will feel the ice crystals form. I had a week old platy fry that survived for 5 hours out of water.

Lots of people advocate using freezing as a euthanasia method.....cruel

 

[Y2J]

That euthanization thread made me quite sick the other night when i read it.. so what if the fish is in pain you dont know its feelings and unless the day comes when they can talk and ask you to end their lives dont kill it.

 

[vantgE]

The orignal poster kind of had a reason for killingt them, before they sufocate the rest of the fish,

MAybe you could consider a small predatory catfish like syno petricola or maybe a eupterus not saying they'll work but it's something to look into but that'll be expensive for petricola over here would cost at least eighty dollars, petricolas especially would like the water

 

[Fishy411]

a eupterous will eat the rest of the fish too. An Ocellifer might work.

 

[Synirr]

I'd say a bumblebee catfish is a good bet if you can find one. They're really cool looking (in the rare event that you actually see them in your tank!) and they do an excellent job of taking care of fry... and anything else they can fit in their mouths