Gouramis think Danio fry are great treats

[325Pilot]

Allright, so I found a bunch of several day old danio fry in my bucket when I was doing a water change so I saved 13 of them. When I went on vacation and couldn't feed them 9 died, that leaves 5. I decided that 5 weren't worth taking up my 10 gallon tank, so I transferred them to a net thingy in my main tank, Last week I tested one in the water to see if it was old enough to survive on its own yet, it survived 1/2 hour, then I couldn't find it That leaves four. I think one got out of the net because I could only find 3 in it today. Now they were like at least 1cm old and I thought that they could fend for themselves so I let one of the bigger ones go. He swam and got chased by the danios and neons for about 15 seconds, and just when I was going to rescue him, he found shelter right in a clump of live grass, right in front of my female Gourami. he was like right in front of her and she didn't even move, just sucked him up Now I have 2 For a brief second I thought about taking the gourami out and trying to make it spit up the fry, but then I realized that what was done was done and my idea was stupid . I figured I'd be able to save it if it looked endangered, or at least, I never thought that SHE"D eat it! She barely moves. Alright, I guess I'm alright now, I had to tell someone, and I was so appalled at how she just sucked him in with a suck of water, after I thought he was safe and I could net him.

 

[djprincessx]

you want to keep them in the net until they're not big enough to fit in any of your fish mouths. That's basically a rule of thumb if you don't want them eaten.

 

[appleblossom]

I made the same mistake with molly fry, I had them all in a breeder and they were getting pretty big, around 1cm, so i took one out and put it in the main tank to see how he did, he swam around happily and the other fish just ignored him, so thinking all was well I tipped the whole net load of fry into the tank (about 30) then watched in horror as my little silver tip tetras hunted down and ate every single one

One survived by hiding in the plants near the surface, but he disappeared too a few weeks ago

 

[Wyld-Fyre]

Yep, another story of woe and eaten fry from me.

Had a load of baby Danio fry's born recently, so decided to better their chances and split into two groups. One group, the larger, stayed in the fry tank/snailarium and the other, smaller group, in my new Gourami breeding tank.

Not thinking the fry's would be eaten, but still playing safe, the tank had about 10 of them. Gradually and throughout the night this number was whittled down to 0. Ah well, what's done is done. I've learnt from this mistake.

 

[Never2Bknown]

My pictus catfish did that to me once. I had nine swordtail fry, all around 1/4 of inch, maybe a little more, and they looked like they would be more than a mouthful for even my biggest fish--the catfish. So, I put them in. The next morning, I had two fry left and one very fat and happy catfish. I moved the two left over back to their old tank. Apparently the catfish had lived up to the name I gave him--Kitty Cat. Don't ask me why, but he still remained my favorite fish even after that, until he was claimed by a particularly nasty case of ich. That's the first time I've had a disease actually make my aquarium a safer place...

 

[325Pilot]

Thanks, that makes me feel better. I was just kinda mad because I am down to so few, and they were getting big enough to be recognizable from one another. they have a good tail instead of just a whip-like thing. I'm kinda surprised that he was that bad at taking shelter, A week or so ago, one tinyone got away from my other fish for at least 1/2 hr. Oh well.