Fry Living together

[apisto420]

Well i am going to have a crap load of apisto frys, i got 13 already at 1 cm long and another batch of about 50 eggs.. Would they live hapily together if they were raised together? i mean they are family.. would be so cool to keep 50 apistos in 1 tank.. well maybe not that much but 30 in my 46 gallon would be cool..

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

Would they live hapily together if they were raised together? i mean they are family

No, the big fry will eat the small fry. You will find (for some of the species, A. cacatuoides and A. borellii for example) that males are more tolerant of male sub-adults that have grown up in the tank with them, and the same for males raised together. I've not kept any of them but I don't think this would be true of pair forming species, I would expect them to be a lot more hostile towards sub-adults. However, in all these cases it is only a matter of time before more full scale hostilities break out. Females are a slightly different kettle of fish, in that more females may spread hostility (certainly in harem breeding species), but again if subordinate females are permanently excluded from the tank floor they will often become stressed and die.

cheers Darrel

 

[apisto420]

Sorry I ment that i would grow out the frys first to about 1 inch so they wouldn't get eaten and then i would put them all in the 46 gallon.. So there would be no way they could eat each other but possibly kill each other due to too many fish in 1 tank... But back to my main question, would they kill each other? even though they have grown up together and are brothers and sisters?

 

[dw1305]

Hi all,

But back to my main question, would they kill each other? even though they have grown up together and are brothers and sisters?

Yes they don't have any "family loyalties" or make conscious choices, they just have innate behaviour.

A good example is in the pair forming Hemichromis (Jewel Cichlid), here they are fantastic parents and often manage to kill tank mates many times their own size in "defence" of the fry. However one day they just stop defending their fry and attempt to drive them out of their territory. In a tank they can't drive them out (they have nowhere to go) and then they just kill them instead.

cheers Darrel