Adding Fry to Community Tank

[MaxM]

I have a bunch of Fry Danio and also fry Corydoras in a breeder tank. I would like to at some point add some of them into my community tank. However, among of fish in that tank are Angelfish and a 3+ inch female swordtail that I'm worried will eat them unless they are too large to swallow.

Anybody have experience with fry? At what point can I safely introduce them into my community tank?

[KBOzzie59]

My SWAG 6 -8 weeks if they are growing well.

[RovingGinger]

I think the official metric is “will it fit in another fish’s mouth”. Hard to give a timeline for that, kinda depends on growth speed. The other factor is how much you like the fry. 

[DaveSamsell]

I usually don't separate the fry at all.  Instead, I heavily plant my aquariums.  Good hiding places for the fry.  

[MaxM]

7 hours ago, RovingGinger said:

I think the official metric is “will it fit in another fish’s mouth”. Hard to give a timeline for that, kinda depends on growth speed. The other factor is how much you like the fry. 

Yes, that's what they say. However, my fish are rude and every time I ask them, "Open wide" so that I can see how wide they can open their mouths, they flat out refuse and stop talking to me! 😉

There must be a size that clearly is out of range of being eaten. I was surprised to hear that they recommend not to put neon tetras with Angelfish. Clearly fish have to be significant in size to be safe. My Danios seem to grow much slower than expected. They're at least three months old and still no where near the size that can be added. I'm figuring that I have to wait until they are at least 6 to 8 months old. 

Any breeders out there can tell me at what age do you sell them?

[Marc]

I think your angel fish might eat anything he can get his mouth on. How big is the angle fish?

[MaxM]

11 minutes ago, Marc said:

I think your angel fish might eat anything he can get his mouth on. How big is the angle fish?

mid-size. I'd say roughly 3in from head to tail.

[Daniel]

9 hours ago, DaveSamsell said:

I usually don't separate the fry at all.  Instead, I heavily plant my aquariums.  Good hiding places for the fry.  

In heavily planted large community tanks I have had all kinds of fry and shrimp survive to adulthood even though there were dozens of 3 to 4 inch angelfish in the tank. But this is the exception to the rule.

The shrimp invented their own work around. The shrimp stopped coming out in the daytime and I would only see them at nighttime. But the cherry shrimp continued to breed and make more shrimp that grew to adults. I am sure large numbers were eaten too.

Endlers in this tank reached an equilibrium between angelfish predation and the enormous capacity of females Endlers to pump out fry. Even when I tried myself to rid the tank of Endlers, I couldn't catch them all. Eventually I had to resort to traps.

New Corydoras would pop up from time to time even though I never noticed any fry.

But again, none of this would have happened in a 29 gallon tank. The key was lots and plants and lots of levels and zones for all the different kinds of fish.

So yes, your angelfish (and swordtail) will chow down heartily on almost everything that looks eatable, the question is, can they eat their tank mates faster than the tank mates reproduce?

[Jim b]

I think the biggest factor obviously is size, fish will eat anything they think they can eat even bigger! I would error on the side of caution and wait .

[Jim b]

Remember there are no mirrors  and fish really don’t know how big they are. I’ve caught many fish half the size of my lure proving this point. Wait.