Keeping the population down....

[Link]

Your best bet I rekon will be to get rid of the biggest females first. They're more likely to produce and mate with the males. The tinyest babies will probably get picked off by your other fish anyway.
I'd phone round a few shops first to save a wasted journey

 

[shrks1fan]

sorry i just realised you are in the UK
It is illegal to feed any fish to another fish here.

don't do it

Huh? It's illegal? You've GOT to be kidding? That's the silliest thing I've ever heard! It's natural for pete sake! What, does England have the fish tank patrol that comes by your house and makes sure you're not feeding live food to your tropical fish? hahahahaha Sorry, but that's just silly.

Linda

 

[Ed4567]

Huh? It's illegal? You've GOT to be kidding? That's the silliest thing I've ever heard! It's natural for pete sake! What, does England have the fish tank patrol that comes by your house and makes sure you're not feeding live food to your tropical fish? hahahahaha Sorry, but that's just silly.

Actually I think the law is against deliberatly using live vertebrates as feeders for other animals (it is not confined to fish). No of course no one 'comes by your house' to check you are not feeding live VERTEBRATE food to your fish, however fish shops should refuse to sell you fish if they believe they are for this purpose. I do not believe this law would cover adding a fish to you tank which would happen to eat any young fish that were produced since the fry are an incindential food source that happen to end up in the tank rather than being deliberataly added.

Without wanting to start a debate I think the law against using live vertebrates as feeders is very sensible and goes a fair way to prevent cruelty (no im not thinking of fish here).

Ed

 

[SirMinion]

Yes, the law is againt using live vertibrates as food. However, it is not illegal to feed dead vertibrates. So killing the fish before giving them to the preditor would not be breaking the law.

It also means that I cannot feed live goats to my komodo dragon and he has to make do with bigmacs instead.

 

[Ed4567]

Yes, the law is againt using live vertibrates as food. However, it is not illegal to feed dead vertibrates. So killing the fish before giving them to the preditor would not be breaking the law. 

It also means that I cannot feed live goats to my komodo dragon and he has to make do with bigmacs instead. 

In a number of reptile houses in France it is common to feed the snakes live chickens/ rabbits for public 'entertainment'. These animals can survive for considerable lengths of time (hours to days depending on the snakes hunger at the time) in an entirely unnatural situation with no prospect of survival. I do not think that a situation like this is either humane or desirable in the UK.

I agree that it is far harder to justify banning the use of live fish on cruety grounds, although vertebrate/ non vertebrate life seems to be as good a place as any to draw the line.

Ed

edited for clarity

 

[The-Wolf]

I have tried to find the exact legistasion but you all know what governament website are like.
I have sent an e-mail to CEFRA the governing body (I think) and await their reply

 

[Link]

Yes, the law is againt using live vertibrates as food. However, it is not illegal to feed dead vertibrates. So killing the fish before giving them to the preditor would not be breaking the law. 

It also means that I cannot feed live goats to my komodo dragon and he has to make do with bigmacs instead. 

In a number of reptile houses in France it is common to feed the snakes live chickens/ rabbits for public 'entertainment'. These animals can survive for considerable lengths of time (hours to days depending on the snakes hunger at the time) in an entirely unnatural situation with no prospect of survival. I do not think that a situation like this is either humane or desirable in the UK.

I agree that it is far harder to justify banning the use of live fish on cruety grounds, although vertebrate/ non vertebrate life seems to be as good a place as any to draw the line.

Ed

edited for clarity

I've just gone off the French

Totally agree though

 

[clutterydrawer]

Huh? It's illegal? You've GOT to be kidding? That's the silliest thing I've ever heard! It's natural for pete sake! What, does England have the fish tank patrol that comes by your house and makes sure you're not feeding live food to your tropical fish? hahahahaha Sorry, but that's just silly.

Linda

It is not "natural" for a fish to be trapped in a small confined space with a predator, with no chance of escape. Rivers and lakes are pretty big compared to tanks...in case you havn't noticed.

 

[Jimmy Twotimes]

Ok Guys, i hope I havent given people the wrong idea that I'm looking to purposely feed little guppies to a bigger fish!!!

It was a kinda innocent request but it looks like we've all learnt something new from it.

However, back to my situation. How would a Lyretail Killifish get on in my community???

Cheers

Jimmy.

 

[K-Holed]

Hmmm .... the LFS I used to work for used to feed guppies to the lion fish whilst they were weening them onto frozen lancefish ... was that illegal then?

 

[CFC]

Hmmm .... the LFS I used to work for used to feed guppies to the lion fish whilst they were weening them onto frozen lancefish ... was that illegal then?

Yes, had they been reported and it could be proved then the shop owner could face procecution by the RSPCA which could result in a fine and/or being banned from keeping animals for a period of time.

However a blind eye is usually turned toward the feeding of live animals to other animals which would die unless offered live prey, provided sufficient effort was spent also trying to convert the animal to non live food and no other alternatives were available. Most hardcore predatory fish will accept live river shrimp (invertabrate) as a last resort if they will not take frozen foods, of the many species of truely piscavorous fish i have kept only 3 species have needed to eat live fish to survive.

 

[Pearlie]

(I agree with the legislation thing, and wish to some extent it was adopted here in the U.S. When I worked at Petco, I hated selling baby mice as feeders. Five years later when I worked for Petsmart, that was one of the things I did not apologize for - not having feeder mice. I didn't care either if I came across as rude.)

Hrm, the only thing I could suggest is yet another fish that later on may endanger your other fish - Pictus Catfish. These guys were going to take care of my baby guppy problem, but, I didn't realize that Petsmart was specifically using 10 inch breeding stock! (Check the info cards on the tanks, according to one Specialty Manager, the information is based on the size of the vendor breeding stock, and not just there for general knowledge, or for general guidelines.)

Good luck! Hopefully a lfs will be willing to take them in. This is now my Plan A.

 

[balloon molly]

how about african butterfly fish,i think they will only get to about 4 inches and will eagerly eat smaller fish