# putting baby reds with adults



## kutanovski14 (Feb 3, 2008)

hey i was wondering if i could put my 3 week old rb's with my 6" rb's


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## angeli697 (Jul 5, 2007)

umm. i'm gonna say no. but how big are your 3 week old p's? are your 6" really aggressive?


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## kutanovski14 (Feb 3, 2008)

their like an inch and the 6inchers are not that aggressive


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## dalyhawk (Apr 30, 2007)

probably not. They'll most likely be food unless you have some serious cover for the little guys. What i did with one of mine, is I have a little 6 gallon tank in my room that i housed the little guy from 1" to about maybe 2-3" or so... Basically when he was big enough to not be seen as food, and when he grew out of the tank, i introduced im to my shoal of 4 in my 90 gallon and monitored the tank pretty often when i was home and made SURE they were well fed every single day so the aggression went down dramatically. He got picked on for awhile but as soon as he got about as big as the others (due to being so young and a huge growth spurt) he stopped getting picked on and is welcome in the shoal.

So if you have a little tank to raise him in for awhile with good food fed to him, then i would defiitely say it's possible to introduce with your 6" reds at the right time. My reds were about 5-6" when i introduced him. Another thing to complicate the situation when introducing him was that I have 2 breeding pairs, so the males are very protective of their territory especially when eggs are present. (the male hovers over the eggs and "fans" them to make sure fresh water is over the eggs at all times) So the little guy definitely got picked on. I wouldn't put them in yet, but wait awhile and then you can.

Because if you think about it, this stuff happens in the wild, but only the strong babies survive obviously... so if you get them up to a size where in the wild the bigger reds wouldn't pick on him then you're good


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## CLUSTER ONE (Aug 2, 2006)

No . No matter the agression level of the adults the juvies would be killed. An inch to 2" fish will probably be killed by p's that are only 1" larger while 6" larger is a guarantiee since that is about their food size.
odds are about 1 in 1000000 that i will work without deaths.


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## Domelotta (Apr 25, 2007)

I did that. It was a little different in my case tho...I had a 5.5" and then I added 3 1.5"ers. In my case one of them was eventually eaten. The most aggressive one. He conflicted with the large one all the time and one day he was just half a body left at the bottom of the tank.


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## MoJoe (Mar 5, 2008)

+1 on what everyone else said.

They'd either be instant food or eventual food for the 6"ers. I remember putting 3 1" RB's with my 3"er and two were eaten right off the bat and the last one conveniently dissapeared a few days later. I remember thinking "those were the most expensive feeders I've ever bought" doh..


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## DJDeezell (Jun 23, 2008)

i put a 6" in my tank with my 5 2" and so far they act like they hate each other. They havent touched each other but my 2" stay on one side and my 6 " stays on the opposite end. every now and then the 6" will go for a casual cruise and cause some ruckus but they eventually go back to their respective sides. I added guppies and some algae eaters at the same time and only 2 guppies have gotten eaten in a week. Only reason i got it was went to the LFS to get the algae eaters and the girlfriend saw the bigger ones and bugged me til i bought one. I was convinced id get up the next day and the tank would be a solo fish but so far so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed....


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## kfreeman (Feb 14, 2008)




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## caribad (Jul 27, 2008)

You could do it, but it would be called lunch or canibalism if there isn't one heck of a lot of cover.


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## blbig50 (Jan 1, 2009)

Food is Food.


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## Rough996 (Oct 3, 2006)

I'd say you will end up with some expensive feeders.



DJDeezell said:


> i put a 6" in my tank with my 5 2" and so far they act like they hate each other. They havent touched each other but my 2" stay on one side and my 6 " stays on the opposite end. every now and then the 6" will go for a casual cruise and cause some ruckus but they eventually go back to their respective sides. I added guppies and some algae eaters at the same time and only 2 guppies have gotten eaten in a week. Only reason i got it was went to the LFS to get the algae eaters and the girlfriend saw the bigger ones and bugged me til i bought one. I was convinced id get up the next day and the tank would be a solo fish but so far so good. I'm keeping my fingers crossed....


Get rid of the guppies. Unless you've quarantined them for over a week, that's an unncessary risk that you're taking by possibly introducing harmful/deadly parasites and diseases... not to mention, they have growth inhibitors that will keep your 2" from reaching their potential.


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## cobrafox46 (Jun 2, 2008)

This thread is from June 2008....LOL


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## blbig50 (Jan 1, 2009)

^^^^^^
Hahahaha


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## rey420 (Mar 2, 2008)

tried it before, i had 12 adults, in a WELL planted 96x30x18 (LxWxH) and about 50 or so two inchers and they were all eventually eaten but one. that one was smart enough to get to 4 inches before i sold him. i have some large anubius barteris sticking out of the water and they chilled near them, also near my floating watersprites, and under driftwoods with lots of java moss. they got picked off like feeders. your better off throwing some guppies in there, mine lasted untill now!!! Have fun experimenting!!!!


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## upgradepc (Jan 30, 2009)

i just added a 3" red with my 3, 5" piranha and fed them well turned the temp down to 76 and the next morning peice of his head was all that was left.


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## Big Den (May 5, 2008)

ReDbElLiEs16 said:


> their like an inch and the 6inchers are not that aggressive


I inch nattereri are more like 6/7 weeks from free swimming.

Durr! just noticed how old this thread is, their all dead by now.


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## upgradepc (Jan 30, 2009)

i added a 3" to my tank with 3, 5" rbp and had them well fed and everything. the next morning all that was left was a head


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## lovemyreds (Feb 18, 2009)

ReDbElLiEs16 wonder if he tried it but i guess we already know the outcome


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