Fish food

[quintessential]

The question is.
Does anyone breed very easy live bearers and use the fry as food for other harder to keep fish?

On the one hand it would be a very easy, ready to hand and nutritious food that would also be harder to get at than flake therefore more enjoyment for the bigger fish.

On the other hand is it very cruel to the guppys/platties to remove the offspring and treat them in this way?

Then again if left to their own devices in the community tank this would happen anyway.

Is it just a moral dilema that purposefully doing it yourself is wrong?

Should you believe it is wrong to do this then tell me, is there a difference when it comes to brine shrimp?

Surely it amounts to the same thing!

Do we as breaders have the power to "play god" or are we (if we do it) merely satisfying a need to feed........mmmmmmm..........I wonder.

 

[WILDER]

I wouldn't do it as i love fry, but it's up to you and how you will feel.

 

[mlee0332]

Alot of people suggest survival of the fittest for live bearer fry b/c if you dont they will be like a plague!!! Using them as feeders shouldn't be too big of a deal, but I wouldn't want to do it b/c I dont have the heart to do that to them...

 

[pica_nuttalli]

eh, i let my puffer munch on guppy fry for a long while.

if you have larger/more aggressive fish, a lot of the monster-keepers recommend raising convict fry for use as feeders. convict cichlids are more reliably productive, produce slightly larger batches of fry, and grow to a decent size faster (i think). plus you can't sell 100 baby convicts for love or money, so its the best excuse for breeding them and getting to witness the insanity that is convict parenting.

 

[One_Trick_Pony]

good point there pica

 

[Jen21]

I hear what your saying about feeding the fry to the bigger fish... after all, some larger fish do naturally eat small fish as their diet. But, I do try to save all of my fry... although most do get eaten by the bigger fish. "Survival of the Fittest" doesn't apply to my tank because if I don't take the fry out quickly, there are no survivors. Its just my nature and hobby to raise my fry.

 

[BigC]

I have no problems with feeding Guppy fry to larger varieties of Killifish such as Fundulopanchax sjostedti.

 

[Tempestuousfury]

Nothing wrong with it. A lot of people on here don't have fish that eat the fry when they get bigger, but right after birth, pretty much any fish will eat the fry.

It's a constant source of food, safer than getting feeder fish, and it is cheap provided you have the space and equipment.

 

[abstract]

i feed excess guppy fry to my killis, gouramis, and rainbows...not to mention anything with a big mouth on the bottom...never felt guilty once - they die quickly, believe me