Is it cruel to control fry population?

[Drayven]

It seems like every day I'm sitting here researching what types of fish will go in my tank and a common thing comes up, most of them seem to breed like crazy. I guess what I'm wondering is, in the aquarium world is it considered cruel to keep a fish or 2 in the tank for the main purpose of eating fry?

I figure it's probably much more natural than flushing them or something right? also I guess as part of this discussion I'm kind of curious what type of fish would be good fry eaters but still friendly to like danios and loaches?

 

[Mystery]

It seems more sensible to me not to keep breeding pairs of prolific species. e.g. keep just one sex.

 

[Drayven]

But what about fish like swordtails where multiple males will fight each other?

 

[thominil]

In my mind it's not cruel. It happens in their natural habitat.

 

[spoonman]

Also some species of cichlid which I happen to have it is very hard to tell the males and females apart until you see a female with a mouth full of fry. Right now I have an Acei that is releasing fry into the tank. If they survive I will keep them and if not, well that is nature.

 

[Mystery]

If there isn't a way to avoid fry, getting eaten is a fairly quick end. I just feel not breeding at all is an even better arrangement whenever possible--just as with any other pet animal.

 

[spoonman]

Baby cats and dogs, etc are not wild and dont get eaten. We are talking about apples and oranges here. I would not consider fish a totally domesticated animal. I agree that if it can be avoided dont have fry. In my kids tanks they have only male or female guppies...etc.

 

[mgamer20o0]

just have fish that will eat the fry or some way to get rid of the extras. i think its more cruel to let them breed uncontrolled and over stock a tank but thats just me.

 

[spoonman]

Amen Gamer. I would rather have them swallowed whole as a fry than fighting over territory as a full grown adult.

 

[Drayven]

Believe me, I'd get them all spayed and neutered if I could. Just like all my other pets

Are tehre any community fish that are known fry eaters?

 

[spoonman]

I know my big angel fish are.

 

[mgamer20o0]

what size tank? whats in there? and what do you want to add?

 

[Drayven]

50 gallon, currently cycling, will have weather loaches and zebra danios for sure. Perhaps a few swordtails and maybe a dwarf frog, not 100% sure yet. Due to the loaches I'll probably keep it a bit sub-tropical so probably low 70s

 

[veetors]

You could also look at it as saving money on food......

 

[honey-lovin]

hey this would happen to be my first post in the interests of others

but from the research i have done most live bearers will eat any fry they can and if dont get eaten then they run the risk of getting sucked into your filter... so unless your tank is realy booming then i belive there is little to worry about

hope this was helpfull and not just noobie input :d

 

[WhiteDevil]

I feed my culls to my showtank, my angels love them some fry.

They dont eat for days afterwards, its also a very interesting thing to watch, you see natural instinct come right out.

 

[FishEggs]

i wouldn't be surprised if the dwarf frog helps out the fry population. Angels are good fry eaters too. you could also maybe sell them to the lfs (for store credit usually) or maybe find some one who needs feeders. i'm sure they would be better quality than the goldfish feeders at the lfs.

 

[DizzCat]

To me, its more cruel to leave fish lonely than to have males and females reproduce. This will happen eventually with any size population and a lot of fish need to be kept in groups for them to be happy. An example would be Swords. From what I understand, males will fight to the death, yet without a group the fish will be very unhappy and not thrive.

In a lot of fish there is no real way to tell males from females, especially when in the store because they are juveniles and impossible to tell.

I have fry in both my community tank and my African tank all the time. I cannot stop them from breeding. If I tried to save all the fry I would now be over run by tanks. When my guppies give birth in my community tank, all the other fish get them. The best fry catchers actually are my Zebra Danios. They just grab them as the zip by. When I had Angels they were the best of all. When my Danios spawn, the other fish munch on the eggs. If I removed the males or females, I would have a lot of unhappy fish.

When a female Mbuna releases in my African tank, the adults eat the fry. I will discover 1 or 2 that survived and these are the biggest, smartest and strongest. It is natures way. That is why fish have such huge batches of egg/fry, because in nature, only 2 or 3 will make it from a clutch of maybe 300.

 

[meegosh]

I know my big angel fish are.

My large koi angel helped me get me out of my guppy population explosion. In my case I didn't realize how fast they would fill my tanks. I admit I got in over my head but I found someone to take them off my hands and any other fry my angel took care of. I think that is better than letting them all grow up and have 30 guppies in a 10g. Live and learn...

 

[DizzCat]

All community fish will eat fry if they can catch them. For live bearers, the fry tend to stay at the top of the tank, so fish that go to the top get those, like Danios, Angels, Gourami's, etc. Cichlid fry stay at the bottom of the tank, so they are fair game to most all the other fish.

African Dwarf frogs are really bad at catching fry. They have pretty bad eye sight so unless a fry swims by them, they wont see it. Unless mine happen to be hanging up top in a floating plant, or a guppy fry swims by one at the bottom, they never get a fry treat. When I feed the tank frozen blood worms, I have to dangle some right in front of my frogs or they wont get any.

As for trading or selling the fry when they get bigger, that is really hard to do. Most all stores will not take live bearer fry because they breed too easy and there is always an over abundance of them. If its a fish that the store does not get from a supplier as often as they like then you can set up a deal. I trade my Bolivian Ram fry to 2 lfs for credit when they are 2". These 2 stores will gladly take them, but say no to Guppies, Platy, etc. They are picky as to what African Mbuna too because they also spawn so easy. Almost all chain pet stores (Petsmart, Petco, etc) will tell you no because their policy is only working with their suppliers.

So, if you try to save all the fry, grow them out and then cannot sell or trade them, then what? You then end up with an overloaded tank and all the fish suffer.

Do I feel bad about it? Sure I do, who wouldn't. I have a floating plant in my community tank and it is there for fry who make it up there. Most of the time I have one make it past eating size. Again, the smartest, strongest. In my Mbuna tank I have lots of hide outs for fry. If I find one that has made it past a certain size, I keep it for myself or give to friends.

I may feel bad about it, but I would feel so much worse if I took away the favored mate of a fish and the one left dies of loneliness (I have seen it happen). If I took one of my Rams away, the other would die. They are together all the time.