Jump to content


Minnows Lost Without Their Leader


8 replies to this topic

#1 Guest_Rtifs_*

Guest_Rtifs_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 07:11 AM

I have a tank with a Readear Sunfish (about 8”), and four (now three) “rosy red” fathead minnows. The redear mostly ignores them. He acts like he’s not even aware of them. Then every 3-4 months or so, one will go MIA over night. Well this time the MIA minnow is the alpha male. The remaining three minnows are lost without their fearless leader. When they see me, they do the feed-me dance, but when I add food they hardly eat it. It’s like they can’t recognize that its food unless their alpha male eats it first. I assumed that a new alpha would emerge right away, but so far there’s no sign of it. If they don’t get their act together soon they’ll all get eaten. The readear does pay attention to them when they show fear.

By the way - rosy red alpha males are crazy. A previous one once bit the readear on the tail! He just swam right up to him and bit him. The sunfish spun around in surprise but never knew who bit him (that minnow disappeared a few weeks later).

The most recent alpha male once did a “Lady and the Tramp” spaghetti-kiss with the sunfish over a bloodworm. I feed the sunfish mostly frozen bloodworms. I partially thaw the cube and then drop it in – the sunfish eats the whole cube at once. However the minnow had grown increasingly bold and would sometimes charge in and grab a worm off the cube before the sunfish could engulf it. About three weeks ago there was a lone worm floating and both the minnow and sunfish saw it at the same time. They both charged in, and got to it at the same time and literally kissed (I think the sunfish got the worm - barely).

#2 Guest_Drew_*

Guest_Drew_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 07:21 AM

Is there a question in there somewhere? Or are you just sharing a story?

#3 Guest_exasperatus2002_*

Guest_exasperatus2002_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 08:20 AM

Is there a question in there somewhere? Or are you just sharing a story?


Nope sounds like, as the title suggests, that he's sharing a recent experience. Thank you rtifs. Sounds like your going to need more fatheads. Your redear sunfish is opportunistic and is slowly picking them off.

#4 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

Guest_FirstChAoS_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 10:56 AM

I've never had shiners stop eating but i have noticed different behavior in the face of predators.

Shiners on their own will jockey for leadership, constantly chasing and bullying each other until they know their place in the pecking order. Even then shiners will challenge their position from time to time and sometimes even establish multiple schools. Newcomers will be hazed by every fish in the tank.

Shiners with a predator will tend to clump up in a corner or hover in spots unreachable by the predator. They stop jockeying for position in the pecking order.

#5 Guest_Okiimiru_*

Guest_Okiimiru_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 11:37 AM

Shiners with a predator will tend to clump up in a corner or hover in spots unreachable by the predator. They stop jockeying for position in the pecking order.


That sounds like what Rtifs' are doing.

Can I ask why ya'all are keeping fish in the same tank as another fish that can eat them? Is it to give the predator fish a snack when it wants one? Like a food supplement for it, like how people who want their angelfish to breed better stock the tank with neon tetras? Or are you trying to get a community tank where everyone's peaceful? I'm confused.

Edited by Okiimiru, 11 August 2010 - 11:38 AM.


#6 Guest_FirstChAoS_*

Guest_FirstChAoS_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 12:03 PM

That sounds like what Rtifs' are doing.

Can I ask why ya'all are keeping fish in the same tank as another fish that can eat them? Is it to give the predator fish a snack when it wants one? Like a food supplement for it, like how people who want their angelfish to breed better stock the tank with neon tetras? Or are you trying to get a community tank where everyone's peaceful? I'm confused.


Before i got a third tank for minnows and darters, i had a tank for agressive fish, and one for passives. However some fish in the passive tank outgrew the others and started eating them. Thus my passive tank became my big fish tank.

So now i have a 55 gallon big fish tank. a 20 long killie tank (the bandeds are to agressive for most other fish), and a 20 long minnow and darter tank.

#7 Guest_Okiimiru_*

Guest_Okiimiru_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 01:11 PM

...some fish in the passive tank outgrew the others and started eating them...



Oh, okay, so it was like an unplanned thing. I get it. Happens to a lot of people.

#8 Guest_Rtifs_*

Guest_Rtifs_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 02:29 PM

I've never had shiners stop eating but i have noticed different behavior in the face of predators.

Shiners on their own will jockey for leadership, constantly chasing and bullying each other until they know their place in the pecking order. Even then shiners will challenge their position from time to time and sometimes even establish multiple schools. Newcomers will be hazed by every fish in the tank.

Shiners with a predator will tend to clump up in a corner or hover in spots unreachable by the predator. They stop jockeying for position in the pecking order.


Well the smallest of them will taste the food. He may not need very much. The others just don’t seem to recognize the same food that they’ve eaten every day since I got them in February (they are the last of a batch of 10). Mostly I’m surprised that they just seem unable to function without the dominant male. They never challenged him, and he was always dominating them - especially at meal time. He may have simply had such a vice grip on them that none of them were prepared to take the lead in his absence.

exasperatus2002 you are correct. I wasn’t asking a question. Just posting a story.

#9 Guest_donkeyman876_*

Guest_donkeyman876_*
  • Guests

Posted 11 August 2010 - 03:18 PM

That's a pretty neat observation, I wonder if that would happen with larger schooling fish like Yellow Perch.



Reply to this topic



  


0 user(s) are reading this topic

0 members, 0 guests, 0 anonymous users