Minimal Feeders Lifespan

DiezelEinstein

DiezelEinstein

AC Members
Aug 2, 2008
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AZ
Hiya any input would be helpful...So i do NOT like to buy feeders for my fish from the LFS...the tanks always seem to have floaters and dead ones all over ..could be that they overstock the tank and dont maintenance it properly...unfortunately i will have to make my initial purchase for startup here or i may order online...

I dont feed the fish Feeders all the time, just as a treat...so I was think of setting up a Feeder tank...again i dont feed my fish feeders but once a week after a WC or something as a Treat.

How long do feeders live...rosey's ...minnows, small goldfish....
Any other suggestions on feeders besides shrimp as i use BBS/KRILL/OMNI all frozen.

I will be putting them in a cycled 65 gallon hex...QT them and see who dies off....then try to keep the rest for a few weeks to make sure there are no issues before i start feeding my fishies a snack..

these are going to cichlids all about 6-10 inches...will the feeders outgrow the fish i am feeding?
 
I personally would consider guppies. You can pick up the fancy guppies inexpensively. Let them breed. Then you would have your own colony of feeders to give a snack to your fish occasionally. And you don't have to worry about them getting too big. Just a thought.
 
snoopy65 said:
I personally would consider guppies. You can pick up the fancy guppies inexpensively. Let them breed. Then you would have your own colony of feeders to give a snack to your fish occasionally. And you don't have to worry about them getting too big. Just a thought.
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Yeah, thats my goal...So guppies might be the best bet? Will they Overstock my tank though? possibly overbreeding?

I would probably be pulling out 2 dozen (depending on size) a week to feed....they'll be gone in less than 2 minutes ....all you see is scale glitter ....

thanks you guys for the info so far...
 
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jm1212 said:
you can also use a breeding pair of convict cichlids or mollies.
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I have some mollies and palty's that are breeding all the time...its just since they breed in my planted tanks its a PITA to get them out without destroying my aquascape...I have a Fry tank set up for them and they seem to be doing ok...I sell them to LFS for a quarter.

Aha .....i can probably trade my fry's for some guppies or something...
 
Havnt seen them available around here...ill look into that....not gonna jump into like today, but by next weekend....guess i'll be doing ALOT more reading as it seems like there are tons of options...guess i gotta look "outside the box" more ...
 
I've found convict cichlids to be the most reliable renewable source of feeder fry. With live bearers, their ability to reproduce seems to deminish over time if you're not breeding them with any sort of plan. Most all of the adults, even the parents, will eat the fry too. I've found this to be true of all live bearers no matter what the books say. So, you have to set up your tank to make sure that doesn't happen or spend time trying to get prego mothers into breeder nets and all that. It really can be a bit of a pain.

With convicts, they take care of their fry so, you can pretty much just let be and you'll always have some fry around. And since you'll be dealing with one set of parents, you won't have to worry about the genetic weirdness that seems to occur in live bearer comminities that are left to breed randomly.

That's my .02
 
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