Giant Danios

[SoCal]

I bought 9 giant danios the other day and put them in a 55 gallon tank with my baby peacock bass. To my surprise when I went to feed the bass some baby guppies the danios where first in line, shredding and decapitating the guppies in a heated feeding frenzy.
I thought these things are supposed to be docile community fish. Will they do the same thing to their own fry?

 

[Dimitri146]

i just returned some danios to the pet store recently, they were anything but docile. they should definetly be in the aggressive section of the pet store if you ask me.

 

[Dr.Danio]

Danios are docile with each other. They rarely see each other as food, but will occasionally see their offspring as food. It seems to me that the Giant Danios that you got were nutrient starved at the store, and as such developed a great hunger for flesh. While they will and do eat dry and flake food, its alot better to feed them brine shrimp when possible, especially when mating. If well fed, and well nutritionally supplemented, they will be a little calmer and leave the feeders to the ones being "fed," but till then they'll act like cute little piranhas. The good thing is that they don't get any bigger, so your bass will be very safe from them, can't say the same other way around though... look out.

 

[SoCal]

Dr.Danio

Yeah, I was only going to house the danios in the tank with the bass until I could get my other 55 gal up and running. I was hoping to breed the danios as food for the bass. I have since lost all the bass to a case of ich that had developed at the pet store
The danios are safe and happy as the only mid water occupants of the tank. I am going to wait until my 100 gallon is setup to try the peacock bass again.

BTW. when I bought the danios I told the guy I wanted some female in the group, the guy said that he had some in the bag, but as I now have them in the tank they all flare red at one time or another. Is there any other way to tell sex other than the male is more colorful than the female?