I Feel Cruel...

[Delloy12]

Frozen foods

 

[swanseastilo]

Dead Brine shrimp? LOL

http/www.discountedpetproducts.net/FROZEN_BRINE_SHRIMP_16OZ-UKP51035.html

 

[soybean]

If you're not comfortable feeding it, don't. We all have different beliefs.

I feed crushed up flake and mashed up frozen brineshrimp/bloodworm to my guppy fry. (Which I only keep because my mum can't bear the thought of them being eaten by their own parents! The guilt tripping she gives me is unbearable, so I have to 'rescue' them!)

 

[covict]

stop being silly its called LIFE

 

[blue acara]

I feed baby brine shrimp to fry and I don't feel the least bit bad about it. Its not exaxctly natural but it is one of the best foods to feed fry. The brineshrimp is not going extinct any time soon, if I was feeding tiger or something endangered I would think twice(actually I wouldn't do it).

Crushed flake wont work well with small fry hatched from eggs which is most fish, they simply wont eat it. They need the tiny live moving foods like bbs or microworm. Another point on fish flake is where did it come from, what animal had to die to produce it? Dry fish foods are mostly made of fish. Life has to die to feed life(circle). Apart from plants and some other creatures I cant name! (good old sun ect)!

The most important thing about what humans source for products and food is sustainability, lets not #71### the world up too much while were here eh?

 

[covict]

very good post u seem to have your head screwed on thank god.

 

[soybean]

Can people please stop patronising and calling the OP 'silly'? The bottom line is they don't feel comfortable feeding live food and have asked for alternatives, not ridicule. Much like someone who felt uncomfortable feeding feeder fish might want an alternative.

The ideal food is bbs. You could try hatching these and find you don't mind feeding these after all. But, the alternatives can be crushed up quality flake/pellets, specifically purchased fry foods, or frozen foods - I mash these up when defrosted and guppy fry feed fine on these. Feed whatever you're happy feeding.

 

[covict]

ok but what gets me that people suddenly get a concious when they want to if you actualy think about what we are doing when we put a fish in a tank stuck in a glass cell stuck there with other fish they probably wouldnt have even seen before being stared at and chased about with a net by some thing 100 times its size weres the concious then. sorry thats my rant over

 

[soybean]

ok but what gets me that people suddenly get a concious when they want to if you actualy think about what we are doing when we put a fish in a tank stuck in a glass cell stuck there with other fish they probably wouldnt have even seen before being stared at and chased about with a net by some thing 100 times its size weres the concious then. sorry thats my rant over

What you're talking about is the ethics of captivity, not live feeding. It is live feeding the OP is uncomfortable with and looking for alternatives for, not the moral ins and outs of keeping fish in a tank. Completely different.

 

[eaglesaquarium]

Another option might be to squeeze out a filter sponge into the tank... Fry also eat lots of microscopic organisms that can survive on the mulm found in a filter sponge.


There are always options. I guess the simplest solution for you might be to just provide a great deal of fry cover to the tank that they were born in and allow the fry to fend for themselves. If they survive, they survive. If not, then you won't have to worry about overcrowding in your tank. That too may sound harsh, but it would eliminate a bit of your dilemma. Just don't look around for eggs, etc and chances are you may never see any until they are big enough to come out of their hiding places.

I've had two batches of cory eggs laid recently, but since I was going to be away from home so much this summer (like now for example) I just left them. A few hours later, the eggs were gone. This isn't a case of you "feeding live" fish to the tank. This would be a case of you not intervening in the life cycle of the tank. Long story short, fish fry are a standard food of almost every fish. If they can fit it into their mouth, they are going to eat them. By not stepping in, you are allowing your micro-ecosystem to play out fully.


Of course, if you are looking to breed your fish, then I think that you have to consider the costs of such an operation, and one of those costs might just be getting over your feelings about not feedings BBS to them. If you can't do that, then I would suggest you don't try to breed, and just let "nature" take its course in your tank without you rescuing the fry.

 

[covict]

ok but what gets me that people suddenly get a concious when they want to if you actualy think about what we are doing when we put a fish in a tank stuck in a glass cell stuck there with other fish they probably wouldnt have even seen before being stared at and chased about with a net by some thing 100 times its size weres the concious then. sorry thats my rant over

What you're talking about is the ethics of captivity, not live feeding. It is live feeding the OP is uncomfortable with and looking for alternatives for, not the moral ins and outs of keeping fish in a tank. Completely different.

fish is fish

 

[soybean]

ok but what gets me that people suddenly get a concious when they want to if you actualy think about what we are doing when we put a fish in a tank stuck in a glass cell stuck there with other fish they probably wouldnt have even seen before being stared at and chased about with a net by some thing 100 times its size weres the concious then. sorry thats my rant over

What you're talking about is the ethics of captivity, not live feeding. It is live feeding the OP is uncomfortable with and looking for alternatives for, not the moral ins and outs of keeping fish in a tank. Completely different.

fish is fish

Fish 'is' indeed fish. A very well reasoned response.

By all means start another thread about the morals and ethics of keeping fish in captivity. It could be quite interesting. The purpose of this thread is to discuss options and alternatives for feeding fry.

 

[fluttermoth]

Livebearer fry don't need bbs anyway; they grow just fine on crushed flake.

Egglayer fry are another matter, but you can now get decapsulated brine shrimp eggs which almost as nutritous as bbs and are fine enough for even tiny fry and don't need hatching out, so are more convineient anyway. I keep a little bag of them in my fridge in case of any unexpected fry turning up.

 

[willowstwin]

I'm not intending to breed, I was just covering the "what ifs" after I've recently bought some amanos and the seller told me one of the females may be pregnant. It got me to thinking what if the fish breed...

Thanks for the defence soybean. Like you said, I didn't ask for ridicule, just for alternatives.

 

[ChilliPepper]

If it makes you feel any better, they are gobbled so quickly they won't even realise what has happened