Cruel?

[3fsh]

I have a 10 gallon tank that is being massively overpopulated by my *coughhornycough* guppies and I was wondering.... would it be terribly cruel and inhumane to feed some of the fry to my triggers? I would only be doing it to keep their numbers at acceptable levels. No, they are not fancy guppys, they are feeders so no chance of selling them to an LFS as "pets"... they'd just go into the "feeder" tank.

 

[parker313]

*I* don't think so. Not any crueler than using feeders for FW fish, if you can be sure to only put in as many guppies as the trigger could eat quickly so the guppies don't suffer from the shock of the SW. There will be some shock, but fish don't feel "pain" in the same sense that humans do, so it wouldn't be a big concern to me.

 

[J-Money]

i would be weary, I've heard freshwater feeders are bad for saltwater fish, over the long run anyway. If you continue to feed them the guppies I don't think the triggers will be able to break everything down properly and could start having problems

 

[Navarre]

What concerns me more is what the triggers will learn from this. By feeding live food regualr means that the triggers learn quickly that anything in the tank is a potential target. they have been known to get extremly aggresive once regualr live food is given because they get curiuos and will try to bite anything that moves just in case its more food.

So IMO cruel? no... Long term problems? Yes

 

[Fishy411]

fw feeders cause fatty liver disease in sw fish and will kill yur trigger.

I put yes because yur trigger would die but its not cruel

 

[FrAnK3333]

I dont think its cruel. But I wouldnt feed them if its going to kill your tiggerfish, which are nice fish.

 

[3fsh]

Okay... so it's not necessarily "cruel", it's just not healthy for the triggers. (Mentally or physically.) Hmmmm... gotta figure out some other way to get rid of them.

 

[J-Money]

do you have friends with aggressive freshwater tanks?

 

[Mr Miagi]

I wouldnt really think its cruel.

They are only babies and were just bred. It would be a quick death and they would feel nothing. Besides, if your trigger have eaten no live food before, they may not go for them anywyas.

I know livebearers like guppy's and mollies can stay in salt water quite a while, but im not sure if their fry would be able to cope.

 

[3fsh]

None of my friends have fish... well, aside from the usual "I had a goldfish in a bowl once when I was a kid, but he died" type of thing. They all think I'm obsessed and crazy. Which is true, but I don't really care anymore. I'm going to a aquarium society meeting for the first time on Saturday... maybe I can find someone who would like them as pets. I dunno... the only reason I don't want to sell them to an LFS is because they would go into the icky, disease infested feeder tanks and probably die a slow and painful death before even having a chance to get eaten. At least being eaten is quick and not too painful. (Not that I've ever experienced it before. )

 

[hyrookin]

no, it's not cruel, but I don't think that will supply
the triggerfish any substantial nutrition.

any freshwater feeder fish will present problems for marine fish.

 

[Dragonscales]

*I* don't think so.  Not any crueler than using feeders for FW fish, if you can be sure to only put in as many guppies as the trigger could eat quickly so the guppies don't suffer from the shock of the SW.  There will be some shock, but fish don't feel "pain" in the same sense that humans do, so it wouldn't be a big concern to me.

What a load of hogwash. Fish feel pain in every bit the same way as we do, I would go so far as to say that 99.9% of anything alive does (without it animals would become extinct due to not having anything to let them know they are being injured, sort of like people with blocked pain receptors not realising they are burning themselves on stoves, etc).

They have nerves and receptors just as we do, they have a nervous system as we do, they exhibit the same in-built fight or flee instincts we do and have pretty much the same reaction as we do when injured. Justifying something by saying an animal doesn't feel pain in the same way we do is just ignorant and wrong imo, especially when science has shown that animals are every bit as capable of feeling anything we can, even so far as on an emotional level in some cases.

Don't get me wrong, I agree with the rest of your post and don't see a problem with using feeders for fish which will accept nothing else (or as a diet suppliment in certain cases), if done responsibly and without abuse to the animals but the last comment on pain to close your argument with I don't agree. Neither would the fish and majority of the scientific community who actually research these types of things.