Feeder fish

I totally agree with Inka4040. There are very few large freshwater fish that NEED live fish. I have read articles on some species of large cichlids (like the peacock pass) that will mostly turn down any food that isn't live, but with persistence can be turned onto non-living prepared fish food in some cases. Many people buying feeders from fish stores are getting them for their oscars, which is weird to me b/c oscars are not picky eaters in general and don't need feeders.
 
for my two cents worth

i have found that only my gar delights in eating other fish( i have tried to get gar to eat pellets but he only eats live food ) even my red devil aptly named chicken skin by my daughter now will only rip of the head of a feeder an kill them an leave them alone as he is now trained on fish food pellets etc...

i one time put feeders in with my community tank and ended up with a messed up tank though i do have a 30g holding tank beside my gar tank that i use to keep my white clouds i feed to my gar in
 
Also that last bag of a half dozen platies or 2 dozen livebearer fry that no one ever bids on at my club auctions? They get a hearty last meal in a five gallon then into the bushfish tank. A buck a bag is cheaper then the fish store, and I know the guy who sells them takes good care of his tanks.
 
i used to raise feeders for my oscars.. as long as theyre healthy (home raising is the only way to ensure this), and you make sure they make up a very SMALL portion of their diet, there is nothing wrong with it. make them a treat, at the most.
 
i enjoy watching my lung and my crayfish hunt down live food, so i give them feeders. my crayfish especially enjoys being amused by the live fish and it is fun to watch him climbing around trying to get one. i was feeding him danio's that i got cheap but then i got a guppy so that he could have the fry. i don't see anything wrong with it as long as they eat it and not just kill it and leave it. i don't feed goldfish though. i don't think they are good enough for my fish to eat.
 
I'm breeding murray cod for us to eat (100 fingerlings) and have sourced disease free, lab grown daphnia and copepods from which I've bred food stock. The fish graduated to compost worms and now the lab has supplied 1000 roaches and 15000 crickets which I'm feeding to the cod and I hope to breed. After quarantining as others have suggested, I'll supplement with home grown feeder fish.
The insects come from a lab which breeds under controlled conditions because they supply projects here in Australia aimed at breeding endangered amphibians.
www.frogs.org.au/arcade Arcade is an acronym for Amphibian Research Centre aid.
I'm sure there're similar programmes in the States, UK, etc. Keeping the production line going in winter, assuming I can keep up with demand now, will be challenging no doubt.
For anyone in warm temperate US who's familiar with aerobic composting, you have a fly, hermetia illucians (?from memory?) which could be useful. Its quite clean, excellent waste converter and migrates from the waste bed as a larvae to pupate. I read that the larvae will simply wriggle out of the bedding material and drop into a jar. Too hot and dry in sumer and cold in winter here for it unfortunately.
Cheers
Greg
 
I have a pair of blue eyed cichlids who breed continuously. I raise the fry and feed them to my other fish. Works out pretty well.
 
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