My 14" blind tsn rescue

[SharptoothBass]

The thing is I don't have the tanks to properly process live food. The only reason I used the convict fry I wanted to see if it would eat them dead.


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Understood but a lot of people do and we use live fish for years without problems. So its more the source of the fish and what u do with them that affects the fish, lots of the stores have lazy owners who only care about money and unskilled and untrained workers who only want a check. That is what i belive makes the feeders bad. Good stores with good workers can provide good feeders to good owners.

 

[SharptoothBass]

Sorry to jump in here,I have large cichlids, have been feeding pellets and your right the water is nasty....What can I feed to 10 big sa/ca cichlid That won't stink up the water?


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Im not gonna act like im a cichlid diet expert but i have used live blackworms,live earthworms,frozen worms,live brine,live grass shrimp and live ghost shrimp. Along with finely chopped fresh fillets of fish like tilapia and chopped freswater prawns. Mind you i had more predatory type cichlids and not fish like vejas and other true omnivores. I can tell you this i was told not to use live with my hatians and cubans because they would bloat and that the had to have veggies never gave them veggies and. they grew huge and had tons of fry. Was told not to feed my flowerhorns live because they had weak immune systems because they were hybrids i did and i had some very nice flowerhorns. Was told not to feed my EBJDs live because they have weak immune systems this also was untrue, my EBJDs are growing fast and looking good. Sorry for the derail but he asked

 

[doomiedee]

Understood but a lot of people do and we use live fish for years without problems. So its more the source of the fish and what u do with them that affects the fish, lots of the stores have lazy owners who only care about money and unskilled and untrained workers who only want a check. That is what i belive makes the feeders bad. Good stores with good workers can provide good feeders to good owners.

I couldn't agree more. What else do you is good food to feed him. So far I got trout worms , night crawlers, tilapia fillet,market shrimp, bloodworms, brine shrimp. Will beef heart be bad for him?


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[SharptoothBass]

Understood but a lot of people do and we use live fish for years without problems. So its more the source of the fish and what u do with them that affects the fish, lots of the stores have lazy owners who only care about money and unskilled and untrained workers who only want a check. That is what i belive makes the feeders bad. Good stores with good workers can provide good feeders to good owners.

Seems like u have enough. Crayfish are a good source of protein that are easy to gut load as they will eat almost anything but i know u dont want things he has to chase. Cant tell u about beefheart used them once like 20 years ago for some piranhas made such a mess i never used them again.

 

[MonsterMinis]

imo beefheart is bad for any fish.. it can be fed in small amounts as a "treat" w/out negative effects but it can be hard for some fish to digest as ime bloodworms can be and seem to cause intestinal issues one way or another.

 

[doomiedee]

Well I won't be using beef heart or blood worms. Here's a update video. I'm feeding mainly night crawlers ,trout worms,market shrimp and tilapia chopped up. He's starting to bulk up eating like a pig.

http://youtu.be/omywYjhaO7A



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[doomiedee]

Seems like u have enough. Crayfish are a good source of protein that are easy to gut load as they will eat almost anything but i know u dont want things he has to chase. Cant tell u about beefheart used them once like 20 years ago for some piranhas made such a mess i never used them again.

I think I might take your advise and switch off of pellets. Now I notice the difference in the smell when using live/dead food. Also my cat stopped eating them and seemed to do much better


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[thebiggerthebetter]

One thing I feel I must comment again on (that has been brought up by Necrocanis) is that IMO blindness will not hold your TSN back. Most pims, TSN included, do their best and most efficient hunting at night when the eye sight is not needed at all. What's needed are barbels and maybe other sensory electrical organs like the lateral line, the pits, etc... and that's enough. Their usual prey relies on sight during the day light hours, which renders it pretty vulnerable at night and that's what these cats use to their advantage. These cats are nothing like perch-likes, pikes, etc. which are predators relying on the eye sight.

When I give my two 10" jurs guppies and leave the night light on all night, many/most of the guppies are still alive and well after weeks and weeks (I do offer dead foods too meanwhile). Then all I need to do is to not leave the light on one night, and in the morning, there is not a single guppy left on their 120 gal tank.

 

[thebiggerthebetter]

Just want to know whats the big issuse with live fish been using live fish, with other foods of course for 20+ years use about 400 every week never had a problem. I think its the stores who sell more than the live fish. I dont buy feeders from petco or petsmart cause they are usually horrible. Live fish earthworms and cut tilapia have never failed me fattning up a skinny fish. Been feeding my male MARBLE GOBY live fish for almost 5 years never had a problem, and most of the people on here who dont never get the same fish past 10 inches 12 if they are lucky, mine is 17 inches now.

I have little to add to the foregoing discussion. I didn't mean to say anything you or others don't already know about feeding live fish to other fish. I guess disease transfer and cruelty are two big arguments for me. It may or may not be relevant here, but I am pondering why they don't give live prey to the predators of land and air at the zoos. I am assuming the zoos think it'd be cruel? Perhaps there are other reasons too. In the wild, the prey has the field leveled more or less and can outsmart and outrun and get away from the predator...

Amy's reason is refreshing to me. I have not thought of that that way but to me, the pros of converting to dead foods far outweigh the cons of battling a stubborn fish to accept dead. Humans do it to themselves in their own way all the time for the sake of their betterment and call it..... the dreaded word.... dieting

 

[SharptoothBass]

I have little to add to the foregoing discussion. I didn't mean to say anything you or others don't already know about feeding live fish to other fish. I guess disease transfer and cruelty are two big arguments for me. It may or may not be relevant here, but I am pondering why they don't give live prey to the predators of land and air at the zoos. I am assuming the zoos think it'd be cruel? Perhaps there are other reasons too. In the wild, the prey has the field leveled more or less and can outsmart and outrun and get away from the predator...

Amy's reason is refreshing to me. I have not thought of that that way but to me, the pros of converting to dead foods far outweigh the cons of battling a stubborn fish to accept dead. Humans do it to themselves in their own way all the time for the sake of their betterment and call it..... the dreaded word.... dieting

First let me say i dont have a issue with people who choose not to use live just those who keep saying its bad and your fish will die thats untrue. Anything that is done improperly can kill your fish. Every cichlid and goldfish i ever saw with bloat(not mine never had a fish with bloat) were feed flakes or pellets. So the biggest thing with disease transfer to me is improper care and handling of feeders( not quarantining them). Just as i wouldnt go buy a new fish and dump him into a stable established tank i wont do it with the feeders either. The cruelty part i dont buy at all everybodys idea of cruelty is different and the zoo was probably one of the worst example to use. For instance it is cruel u say to feed live prey because the animal cant escape but it isnt cruel to keep a animal with a natural home range of 50-150 square miles in a cage. Its funny how we can always justify the cruelty we accept while vigoroulsy opposing the cruelty we dont. accept.