Live Foods.

[Dany]

actually, no. there are some species of fish which are usually stocked amoung some fish shops for the sole purpose of them being sold as "feeder fish"

 

[fry_lover]

actually, no. there are some species of fish which are usually stocked amoung some fish shops for the sole purpose of them being sold as "feeder fish"

LOL

illegal, give us the details of any shop that does that Dany LOL

not being silly Dany, honestly, its illegal mate, bit late in the day to prove it mate, but rest assured its illegal, read a billion threads on this!

 

[Gatorbait]

Some fish will only eat live foods. One of my piranhas, a Black Rhom (S. rhombeus) is that way right now. Every once in a while he'll take a bite of raw shrimp I put in there but I don't feel that he's getting enough so I always keep 15-20 minnows in there for him. When I first add them he'll go on a killing rampage and bite 3 or 4 in half and leave the rest there. After the initial day he'll eat them whole.

I'll continue to try to ween him off from live foods but I won't hesitate to feed live fish as long as it takes if that's what he chooses. As he gets bigger I'll use bigger fish but I won't ever get fish that are so big that they have to suffer.

IMO, I chose to raise this fish and he's my first priority, not other fish that I may have to use to keep him alive. They have feeders for a reason and if noone fed live foods they wouldn't be alive anyways.

 

[Invader Xan]

I suppose with something like a piranha there isn't really much choice, huh...?

 

[Gatorbait]

I suppose with something like a piranha there isn't really much choice, huh...?

With some of the Serrasalmus, when young, they like only live foods. I've had a S. rhombeus before and it took almost a year before he would eat non-live foods regularly. This was after sometimes making him go 3-5 weeks without eating and I'd give in and feed live for fear of losing him, although they won't let themselves die of starvation. I'm just a wimp.

Others like Pygocentrus, don't take me as long to ween them. I think the longest it took me was 2 or 3 weeks and generally within the first week they would eat bloodwoms and brine shrimp.

I have a quarantine tank that all feeders go into and used to have a 29g tank with a mating pair of convicts that I would feed the offspring but if given the choice, I would feed non-live foods. Eventualy, I'll be there with the rhom but unbtil then I don't have much of a choice.

 

[three-fingers]

actually, no. there are some species of fish which are usually stocked amoung some fish shops for the sole purpose of them being sold as "feeder fish"

Not in the UK....if you know a shop that does, then it's breaking the law .
Though It is not illegal to keep fish that will only eat other live fish, it is technically illegal to actually feed them live fish.
If the fish NEEDS live food, then they wouldn't prosecute, but if the fish would eat anything else they would.

 

[t1tanrush]

I feed rosy reds to my african clawed frog.. When I have a larger tank set up, and my cons start to breed I'll feed con fry to the larger predatory fish. I mean, fish eat fish in the wild, its not cruel at all. Quick go to the amazon and convert all the fish to pellets gogogo! lol.

 

[newfishaddict]

il be more precise, feeder fish and other larger "live foods" sich as river shrimp etc...

I personally don't have a problem with people feeding their predatory fish feeder fish as long as;
a. The feeder fish is small enough to be devoured/swallowed by the predator fish quickly.
b. The type of feeder fish is chosen with care- the feeder fish should be healthy and suited to the predatory fishes dietry needs.
c. The owner has a reason for feeding their fish live fish rather than just doing it for the fun of it. A lot of predatory fish can be moved onto dead foods without much difficultly, so i think if you can do this with your fish, you should at least give it a go.

The type of feeding of live fish to predatory fish i strongly disagree with is when sometimes buys a 6inch goldfish which is far too large to be killed and eaten quickly by the predatoyr fish in question, so has to suffer a long and slow death being slowly bitten and torn to bits over a long period of time before it eventually dies. Its not just the suffering in this scenario that is wrong- most predatory fish would not eat such big fish given a choice in the wild unless they were capable of killing the fish very quickly.
Same goes for any other type of live food like shrimp.

Personally, i don't see much difference between a guppy and an arrowana, or a convict cichlid and a krib, or a goldfish and an angelfish etc when it comes to priorities in fishkeeping. I think they should deserve the same amount of care and respect- so i think if you have to kill a fish, for whatever reason, you should at least do it humanely. If the feeder fish you are feeding is too big/quick or tough to be killed quickly and humanely by the predatory fish in question, then you should opt for a smaller and easier to kill feeder fish for the predatory fish to eat.

I strongly agree with this user's post.

 

[kribensis12]

I am for feeder fish( not the cheap ones but ones that you raise at home) becuase it helps keep them happy giving them the "thrill of the chase". But that does not mean that I enjoy watching other fish die, I mena some times it is cool but I dont feed them feeder fish just to watch them eat it and it is nature taking course.

 

[fry_lover]

I feed rosy reds to my african clawed frog.. When I have a larger tank set up, and my cons start to breed I'll feed con fry to the larger predatory fish. I mean, fish eat fish in the wild, its not cruel at all. Quick go to the amazon and convert all the fish to pellets gogogo! lol.

LOL to Convict fry to large predatory fish

thats like giving a 20 stone Rugby player, a pea for his dinner LOL

 

[t1tanrush]

Also, some feeder fish are a great way to even out aggression in tanks with many larger fish, such as cichlids. They focus on the smaller feeders and it distracts them, instead of each other. They feel like they have a common enemy.

 

[fry_lover]

LOL - i guess if you have feeder fish in there 24 hours a day that theory would hold up, could be on to something there mate

 

[t1tanrush]

I feed rosy reds to my african clawed frog.. When I have a larger tank set up, and my cons start to breed I'll feed con fry to the larger predatory fish. I mean, fish eat fish in the wild, its not cruel at all. Quick go to the amazon and convert all the fish to pellets gogogo! lol.

LOL to Convict fry to large predatory fish

thats like giving a 20 stone Rugby player, a pea for his dinner LOL

1/2 -1 inch long convicts would make great feeders, feed a few to each fish every now and then... I think your thinking of a tiny just born fry, to an adult jag lol..

LOL - i guess if you have feeder fish in there 24 hours a day that theory would hold up, could be on to something there mate

The way you do this, is to overstock the feeders. Not just what they will eat in a few hours, but what can get away and hide for a bit before being consumed.

 

[fry_lover]

thats dedication my friend, growing convicts to 1/2 inch and 1 inch just to use them as food, i guess if you have lots of time and space might be worth it, but by the time you do the water changes and feed the convicts for them to get to even a half-inch, kinda seems like false economy to me, and a half inch Convict, even a few of them to a big fish aint much of a meal, 1 inch i guess we talking a "snack"

I have quite a few breeding Convicts and even if you do daily water changes and feed several times a day still takes some time to get them to half inch long from fry

 

[t1tanrush]

No space or time. Just put them together and let them work it out... I'll be just letting them do their thing, if they are slow who cares. lol