Guppy Predator But Not Fin Nipper?

[tr...@io.com]

I think we've had this discussion before, but it never gets old. Is
there a fish which will eat guppy babies but is not a guppy tail
nipper? I am considering getting a few female bettas, but I've seen
some of them with nasty tempers who probably wouldn't let a guppy tail
pass by.

I took 36 adult guppies to the LFS two weeks ago out of a 30 (36" X
12"). Today I look in there and I think every remaining female has
delivered with a 90% survival rate. I have a batch of young
selectively bred guppies who were supposed to move in there from the
adolescent's tank...

Jeff Walther

[Altum]

I don't think this is what you have in mind, but one our local
breeders has a 55g with an oscar for his culls. ;-) I've kept angels
and guppies together and the angels will pick off the babies very
nicely. I cleaned out another guppy tank with a jewel cichlid, but he
was an aggressive little fellow.

--Altum

[NetMax]

Micro-predators like insectavores would likely leave the adults
alone. The lake Tanganyikan Julidochromis species might fit the bill.

NetMax

[yng...@aol.com]

Not the same thing, but I originally had two female and one male platy
in one tank with glowlight tetras and a male betta. The platy fry
never lasted more than a day or so. Of course, the betta might have
nipped a guppy's tail but the glowlights never nipped the betta's
fins, so they might be okay with guppies as well. I also have several
huge Amano shrimp and I suspect they eat fry when they can catch them.
-yngver

[tr...@io.com]

On Jun 24, 5:51 pm, "yng...@aol.com" <yng...@aol.com> wrote:
> Not the same thing, but I originally had two female and one male platy
> in one tank with glowlight tetras and a male betta. The platy fry
> never lasted more than a day or so. Of course, the betta might have
> nipped a guppy's tail but the glowlights never nipped the betta's
> fins, so they might be okay with guppies as well. I also have several
> huge Amano shrimp and I suspect they eat fry when they can catch them.
> -yngver

Hmmm, glowlights. I *like* glowlights.

Are you fairly certain that the glowlights were picking off babies and
not just the betta?

Jeff Walther

[tr...@io.com]

On Jun 24, 5:21 pm, Altum <pt.al...@gmail.com> wrote:

> I don't think this is what you have in mind, but one our local
> breeders has a 55g with an oscar for his culls.  ;-)  I've kept angels
> and guppies together and the angels will pick off the babies very
> nicely.  I cleaned out another guppy tank with a jewel cichlid, but he
> was an aggressive little fellow.

Yes, that solution, while efficient has a couple of problems for me.
One is the extra tank needed to house the "cleaner". The other is
that in my twisted little mind, I don't mind if babies are eaten in
the tank, but once I've netted them out, they somehow become my
responsibility and I have trouble feeding them to something else.
Heck, I have guilt issues when I take fish to the LFS worrying that
their new owners won't give them as nice a home as they had at my
place. Silly...I guess I need to be more like granddad who didn't
scruple to slaughter pigs every spring...

In the case of angels in the guppy tank, given that its only a 30
gallon, I think the angels would come to dominate the tank and more or
less take it away from the guppies. Perhaps one angel. Or I could
buy young angels every few months and trade them back in when they get
bigger.

I kept jewel cichlids way back when. They were lovely, but yes, quite
aggressive.

Jeff Walther

[tr...@io.com]

On Jun 24, 5:23 pm, NetMax <computeral...@hotmail.com> wrote:
> Micro-predators like insectavores would likely leave the adults
> alone.  The lake Tanganyikan Julidochromis species might fit the bill.

I will look into those. I've heard the name but remember nothing
about the fish.

[Altum]

On Jun 25, 7:26 am, "t...@io.com" <t...@io.com> wrote:

> Hmmm, glowlights.  I *like* glowlights.
>
> Are you fairly certain that the glowlights were picking off babies and
> not just the betta?

Most tetras are micropredators. They will eat fry given the chance.
Come to think of it, you could probably control your guppy fry with
some of the less-nippy tetras.

--Altum

[yng...@aol.com]

Well, I'm not a hundred percent certain, but in a 29 gallon tank, I
don't think one lone male betta, who was not very aggressive nor fast,
could have gobbled up a lot of fry as fast as they were disappearing.
The female bettas I have in there now probably could, because they are
fast and greedy, but I think, as you guess, they would also try to nip
a guppy tail.
-yngver