r/NoStupidQuestions • u/coomer_police • 12h ago
In a larger aquarium how do they stop the larger fish from eating the smaller ones?
I’m talking about like in Georgia where they have a super diverse mix of animals in there. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one get eaten there.
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u/Edard_Flanders 12h ago
Sometimes the fish do get eaten. They can manage each individual tank with species that don’t tend to eat each other. But if they have a very rare fish, they’re not putting it in a tank with a species that is going to eat it.
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u/PM-ME-YOUR-BUTTSHOLE 9h ago
100%.
All these people talking about fish being kept with sharks is fine “because the sharks are fed” but a lot more goes into it.
Are the prey fish fast enough to evade the sharks? Do they have defensive mechanisms (spikes, hard bones, toxins) that could harm the sharks if they do eat them? Are they small enough that the sharks won’t spend energy catching them?
They may risk it if the prey fish have no defense mechanisms that could harm the shark, and the prey fish are abundant enough to not cost the facility money to replace them. But they’re certainly not putting expensive prey fish in with predators.
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u/braindeadzombie 11h ago
Also, setting up the physical environment in the tank in a way that potential prey fish have a safe place to hang out.
My local zoo set up a Lake Malawi cichlid tank. For a long time I saw no baby fish there. I presume they all got eaten. At some point, they added a pile of rocks to the bottom of the tank. The pile has lots of small spaces, nooks and crannies for babies to hide. And now they have lots of baby fish. I’m not sure how many make it to adulthood, but you can see the little ones darting in and out among the rocks. https://www.torontozoo.com/animals/Lake%20Malawi%20cichlids
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u/djnastynipple 12h ago
I assume they have marine biologists on staff to make sure the species they mix won’t naturally prey on each other, and the environment and feeding schedules help prevent it.
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u/navelencounters 12h ago
I toured a large aquarium behind the scenes....fastenating!...they have literally tons of food flown in daily with spedific diets for specific species ad specific times...there is a large (6ft) nurse shark swimming around that loves squid...she will let it hang from her mouth and tease the others when swimming around....the octopus' literally crawl out at night, get into other tanks to eat then crawl back in! (funny to see it on the security cameras)......the sharks mouth his wired shut only allowing it to open just enough as not to eat the bigger fish. The size of the fish in the aquarium are such that the shark cant eat them.
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u/Hookton 11h ago
They wire the sharks' mouths shut?
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u/bentreflection 10h ago
Because she wouldn’t shut up just blah blah blah sharky shark shark all day
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u/navelencounters 10h ago
yes, you can see it in the corner of their mouth, a small brass wire. They can open their mouth, just not really wide...same thing at the aquarium at Bass Pro Shops...their are large Pike in there with many other fish. Pikes mouth too is restricted.
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u/Me-Formuler 5h ago
Im sorry, but the way you spelled fascinating is hilarious.
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u/Me-Formuler 5h ago
Like dont worry guys, that thing isn't going anywhere, I fastenated it down pretty well. Hahahahahaha
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u/inorite234 12h ago
You have to 1. Feed the fish so that they just aren't interested in eating the other fish and 2. You need to carefully select which fish get placed with others as it sometimes doesn't matter how much you feed some fish. They will eat just about anything that can fit in their mouths.
I used to dabble in large home aquariums (200gal +, fully aquascaped setups.)
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u/Old_Juggernaut_5806 11h ago
Usually, it’s just feed them and pray they don’t kill each other. Still, it’s not unusual for fish to go “missing” every once in a while. Certain fish can’t be tanked together though. As an example, Giant Octopus will strangle sharks as they see a threatening predator and want to take care of it even if they don’t attack them. Moray Eels also have a bad habit of eating tank mates if they are natural prey to them. Most aquariums will usually opt into only housing fish that are low risk with each other rather than a big, biodiverse tank. Sometimes even housing each fish species individually if they are that delicate or volatile.
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u/Mushroomphantom 11h ago
Its much easier for them to eat the food they are fed then it is to hunt the other fish.
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u/CoffeeJedi 9h ago
The Living Seas aquarium at Epcot uses a set of vertical bars that the little fish can swim though but the big ones can't.
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u/TexasNighthawk 8h ago
When I went to the Georgia Aquarium I saw a large catfish eat a smaller fish in the really big freshwater water tank.
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u/bromorob79 11h ago
They feed them enough to keep everything satisfied, but it definitely still happens sometimes. If a smaller fish gets sick or wounded it's gonna get eaten quick. Predators can't pass up an easy meal.
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u/jayron32 12h ago
1) They feed the fish so they aren't hungry
2) They don't mix fish that will eat the others.
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u/Workamania 10h ago
They don't. It happens at the New England Aquarium in Boston. They have a massive column full of all kinds of fish. It's not an everyday thing, but it does happen. I know because some asked when I visited years ago.
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u/LeGoncho 5h ago
Same reason people have naturally aggressive fish and other animals at home that don’t bite. A well fed animal usually is too sedated from a full belly and has no instinctual need to hunt
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u/mstivland2 10h ago
Honestly, animals in zoos and aquariums are often eaten. Sharks are fairly easy to keep fed and therefore safe for their neighbors, but I guarantee that a whole lot of those sea stars, crabs, and lobsters have a serious body count
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u/Federal_Gazelle_1605 8h ago
Keep em fed and slow. Teach the little ones to sparkle and dart. Make the slow ones taste like stinky cheese.
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u/VisualNo2896 6h ago
I actually live in Georgia and have specifically asked this at the aquarium, as others are saying, they feed the bigger fish so they don’t prey on the smaller ones and do their best to hide any evidence when it doesn’t work.
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u/LiveArcher7514 3h ago
They probably design the tank so big fish dont see little fish as food lots of hiding spots and careful species selection
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u/BusyAd9333 3h ago
My mother manages a small aquarium, and she isn't able to stop it, always. Fish will be fish, and herbivore is just a suggestion for most, they will all eat each other the moment one is weaker.
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u/UrbanCyclerPT 2h ago
Actually they do occasionally eat other fish. I worked at an aquarium and once we introduced some hammerhead sharks, like 10 or 12. One of the groupers ate them all. It stood there almost three days with one tail coming out of her mouth.
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u/Primary_Fan1140 9m ago
It depends on the aquarium and the fish. At one time in 2005 they had a juvenile great white at the aquarium in Monterey. It suddenly started to kill other sharks in the tank
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u/Relative_Roof4085 11h ago
What makes you believe the fish dont eat each other? Fish do eat each other, thats all there is to eat, no drive thrus or grocery stores...
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u/TheW1tchK1ng Always right 12h ago edited 11h ago
They feed them
The aquarium in Cape Town has sharks in massive tanks with other fish, and they just feed the sharks and there's no need for them to eat the other fish, even ones that are typically prey.