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Good Morning!
As I understand from literature, paros do not eat their own fry.
This morning again I observed my quindecim female eating one of her young. I’ve seen her doing this before but it seemed to be sort of an “accident” then – she only snapped something quickly moving without having seen it clearly. I think that this may happen from time to time even in fish which usually show no parental cannibalism.But today it was real hunting behaviour: She discovered a very small fry moving slowly on the front pane of the tank. She drew closer, stopping every few centimeters and fixating the fry. She watched it like she does with glass worms or other prey – then suddenly snapped and ate it. She was clearly hunting her own fry – no excuses.
The behaviour of the quindecim fry shows me that they know the danger. Seeing only the shadow of one of their parents, they dart away and hide. Compared to the fry of my Betta hendra (which are also said not to eat their fry) it’s a great difference: The young Betta, from the smallest to bigger ones, move fearlessly around their parents which seem not to notice them at all.
What are your experiences with possible parental cannibalism? Do you observe similar things like me?
(By the way – I dare to say that it’s no big problem for me if the female eats some of the young…. There are so many of them, and the tank provides so much hiding places – I am not afraid that there might remain too few young paros…. I see a bigger problem in distributing all the offspring of my quindecim pair when they have grown to a suitable size. To me it’s more a question of interest in paro behaviour)
Good morning Stefanie.
🙂 A bit dramatic topic for a ‘good morning’ 🙂 .. eating ones own fry :unsure:
But interesting it is.
My experience is indeed like yours, but I have never seen it happen though.
I wonder though a bit, if its something which is more likely to be a problem when you have more than one pair in the tank. In my experience certainly tanks with more than ‘the breeding pair’ is much less likely to produce offspring. Whereas tanks with only the parent pair – though I am sure some eat their offspring, other pairs do not do it in the same degree.
My p.harveyi seems to be much less prone to this habbit, and quite often have big numbers of offspring surviving.
But your observation of the fry and their behaviour is also really interesting, because for sure the paro fry have learned to being as invisible as possible.Could there potentially be another explanation for this occurrence? Could it be that the female sees or senses a physical problem or deformity with that fry and it compelled to eliminate the fry in line with the survival of the fittest? We see this with most egg laying species where in eggs are not fertile and are consumed by the parents.
Thank’s for your answers, Helene and Bill.
Bill – I can’t say it for sure, but I don’t have the impression that there is something wrong with the fry or that she picks out only certain young. I see her “scanning” the hanging roots of the plants floating on the surface where the small fry like to hide. To me she is simply hunting – it doesn’t look different to hunting glass worms.
And as I said – the small fry are very secretive and obviously well aware of their dangerous mother. As they grow (too big to be swallowed) they lose their fear and swim freely right in front of their mother (which obviously checks whether they are still “edible” or not).Bill, but the survival of the fittest would in my opinion also be the survival of the quickest, – so any ‘too slow’ fry is also ‘eliminated’ just as well as a fry with problems. I dont really think that a female would be able to determine if a fry has any physical problems or deformity, but simply having that means that the fry is probably less quick and less able to protect itself.
But I guess having this in mind could indeed mean that by eating own fry it will be the quickest and strongest that survives.But I must also say, I am thinking of the difference between a dark, deep flowing water somewhere in the rainforest with lots of leaves and dark water, – I think probably quite a few more fry will escape than in our small tanks, where theres a limit to how far they can escape.
Yes, Helene, that sounds logical: survival of the fittest may in this case be survival of the quickest. And she only gets those which dare to be seen ………. or are fools enough to be discovered. There are fry which constantly hide in the Microsorum “bushes”, others stay underneath the leaf litter. She can’t get those – they dart away under cover as soon as she appears. She only gets the ones that move slowly along the panes of the tank without any cover or “dream along” under the surface.
I just posted something in Michael Kotzulla’s “P. nagyi”-thread which thematically also belongs here. So I repeat the corresponding part of my answer here in this topic:
I decided to leave the parents with their fry even if a part of the offspring do not survive. Be it as assumed – then the surviving fry are the most viable. There is another assumed advantage: Fry which grow up with their parents might learn certain things which they don’t when separated early. And for the numbers of fry ………… yes, we should attempt to breed the paros to distribute them to other paro friends ………. but let’s be honest: you always have too many offspring which do not find a new home – and then you get a problem with available space. So for me the advantage lies in only few but well grown young fish, raised in a situation as natural as possible. To prevent being eaten is one of the first things a young fish has to learn in captivity as well as in the wild – if not by the own parents, then by other fish in the environment. To artificially raise all fry – even the weakest ones – by preventing them from all possible dangers to me is not the way to obtain a healthy population, even in captivity.
Hello Stefanie,
I use the same method as you “the just do nothing-method” and it works. The populations are growing slow. I always had problems with feeding very young Paros. Many died after feeding Artemia salina or Turbatrix aceti as a result of an increase of bacteria (I think). Hiding in a dense layer of Salninia they prey on smaller food for the first week and this food seems to be better for their health and growth. After one they eat Artemia salina (feeding once per day).
Greetings
Patrick
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