Ok. Aidan caught a little river soonhock (SH) a few weeks back. The SH now lives harmoniously with my goldfish. As it is a predator and generally a bottom feeder, it rarely gets a go at the fish food that we throw in since the greedy goldfishes get to those first. The tank then also had 5 neon tetras. After a few days, AND nearly being convinced that there is a smaller equivalent of the Bermuda Triangle in my tank, as all 5 neons vanished into thin `water', we finally realized that the small SH had a rather big mouth and that IT was probably the reason for the neons vanishing.
So Aidan, his grandparents and I went back to the stream to catch a few little fishes to feed the SH. Aidan did quite a lot of the catching. Armed with a dozen tiny fishes and 3 prawns, we put those into the tank. SH immediately went into feeding frenzy and ate the bulk of the little fishes. That sent Aidan into a different sort of frenzy. He was SO upset that all his hard work had gone into the stomach of the SH in a matter of seconds. To the extent that SH almost lost his home since Aidan wanted him out of the tank. Teary eyed, he wanted to flush SH down the sewer.
So granddaddy offered an explanation on the food chain and Aidan understood. Big fish eat small fish, bigger fish eat big fish ... etc.etc.etc. As a result, Aidan got worried that SH will now starve since there we no more little fishes and the weekend was 6 days away before we have another go at the stream. SO we now have 50 odd little longkang fish, bought from a fish shop enough to keep SH happy for 6 months!
Fish tank now looks like the Tokyo Subway. Too crowded. AND daddy will have a really fun time cleaning it.
So glad the tank wasn't my idea.
