feeder question!!
- Thread starter csm84
- Start date
I woudl say the best way to go with feeders (and they should be an occasional treat not a staple food source) is to get some feeder guppies and setup a nice little 10 gallon tank somewhere for them. Raise you own and you don't have to worry about diseases. Also the guppies stay small and your fish won't choke on them or have to worry about large bones. Feed your feeders a rich diet to bulk them up on nutrients.
But never use fish for feeders that come straight from the LFS. Also QT for at least a couple of weeks.
But never use fish for feeders that come straight from the LFS. Also QT for at least a couple of weeks.
I wouldn't say any one feeder is better than another. Rosies to seem a bit more rare, and I use that word loosely, which may be why I generally see them kept better than feeder goldfish.
Personally, I use home grown Convict fry as my feeders of choice.
Like TKOS said, home grown is better if you have the space and resources.
Personally, I use home grown Convict fry as my feeders of choice.
Like TKOS said, home grown is better if you have the space and resources.
I home grow guppies for treats, and never feed goldies. I have heard that Goldfish just basically don't provide much of anything but fat cartiledge and a bit of protien. I've never used Goldfish, but hve no proof that they are bad. Rosy's are just fathead minnows from what I am told, but would in my mind be better than goldfish. Either way I'm with everyone else in that I wouldn't put them in a tank without either raising them myself or quarantining them for several weeks.
BTW, I have known a lot of people who have had HITH problems, and all but one used Goldfish for feeders. This is only a stab with no real comparison or scientific backing, so please don't mistake it for fact. but HITH seems very prevalent in fish that eat a lot of goldies for whatever reason.
Dave
BTW, I have known a lot of people who have had HITH problems, and all but one used Goldfish for feeders. This is only a stab with no real comparison or scientific backing, so please don't mistake it for fact. but HITH seems very prevalent in fish that eat a lot of goldies for whatever reason.
Dave
If you must use feeders, grow your own. That would make guppies or some easily-bred egglayer such as convicts the only feasible source. You should NEVER, and I repeat NEVER buy feeder fish from any pet shop.
As has been noted above and cannot be repeated too often, feeders are a prime vector for the introduction of parasites and diseases into your tanks. When commercially produced, these fish are bred and kept in substandard conditions all the way from their point of origin into the holding tanks at your LFS (just look at how overcrowded they are and recognize what this does to their water conditions and their susceptibilty to disease, for example). Feeding a sick fish to another fish is by far the most effective way to transmit that disease. For a non-aquatic parallel, remember that the way cows get BSE (Mad Cow disease) is by eating food made up in part of ground up pieces of other infected cows.
Quarantining store-bought fish really won't work, either, because you can easily miss the symptoms of various bacterial or parasitic problems (until they show up in your prize specimen fish, that is).
This board has gone around and around on this subject in the past, and has more than a few cases where someone who was particularly adamant about the need to use feeders and the lack of risk therefrom during a discussion would come back a month or two later to post a "...I didn't think it would happen to me, but you guys were right..." comment.
The moral of the story is that the odds will almost always catch up with you if you don't heed the advice. Using feeders from an LFS is like playing bacterial Russian roulette with your fish.
So get a big tank and raise your own. Although with all of the foods commercially available today, it seems like a lot of trouble (and tankspace that could be put to other, better uses) for nothing.
As has been noted above and cannot be repeated too often, feeders are a prime vector for the introduction of parasites and diseases into your tanks. When commercially produced, these fish are bred and kept in substandard conditions all the way from their point of origin into the holding tanks at your LFS (just look at how overcrowded they are and recognize what this does to their water conditions and their susceptibilty to disease, for example). Feeding a sick fish to another fish is by far the most effective way to transmit that disease. For a non-aquatic parallel, remember that the way cows get BSE (Mad Cow disease) is by eating food made up in part of ground up pieces of other infected cows.
Quarantining store-bought fish really won't work, either, because you can easily miss the symptoms of various bacterial or parasitic problems (until they show up in your prize specimen fish, that is).
This board has gone around and around on this subject in the past, and has more than a few cases where someone who was particularly adamant about the need to use feeders and the lack of risk therefrom during a discussion would come back a month or two later to post a "...I didn't think it would happen to me, but you guys were right..." comment.
The moral of the story is that the odds will almost always catch up with you if you don't heed the advice. Using feeders from an LFS is like playing bacterial Russian roulette with your fish.
So get a big tank and raise your own. Although with all of the foods commercially available today, it seems like a lot of trouble (and tankspace that could be put to other, better uses) for nothing.
