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Coptodon sydnerae really cannibalistic

captmicha

Members
So I know it's a tendency among fish, but yikes. Even the fry are eating fry not that much smaller than they are.

One guy in particular kept getting significantly larger than the other fry and finally today I caught him ramming another fry down his throat. Bashing up into the glass to force it down.

Those were from the first two spawns. The third spawn I decided to leave in the adult tank with a mesh divider, separating the parents and the rest of the adults, and the fry are all gone. I don't know if the parents had a hand in that or not.

I haven't seen this tenacity in eating fry in any of my other fish, cichlids or not. Even without dividers.

And my Coptodons are in biotope with a lot of cover. They're just ravenous. I don't know how they eat so much. I can't even keep forage in their tanks bc they inhale it all so quickly.
 

chriscoli

Administrator
I didn't notice that with mine. But I have seen that in other species. Telmatochromis temporalis "shell" were probably the most aggressive fry I raised. They were taking each other out only a week or two after being free swimming.
 
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