I am hoping to start a healthy colony of feeder fish in a separate tank to feed my large bichir as an occasional treat. I was wondering what the safest and most enriching option of fish would be. Any experience and input is appreciated! So far I’m considering mollies.
Best feeder fish to colonize?
- Thread starter EelWranglerSeb
- Start date
Best yield would probably be smaller guys like guppies or platies imo.
Mollies get larger and will fill up the tank with less of them.
Mollies get larger and will fill up the tank with less of them.
I would look for Marmorkrebs Crayfish (Procambarus fallax f. virginalis or Procambarus virginalis sp. nov.), also known as a Marbled Crayfish. They are prolific, self cloning, and a potential ecological disaster if ever introduced into an area that would sustain them so you may not be able to own same depending on where you live. They are not known to be native to any part of the world and appear to be a genetic anomaly first noticed in a German fish shop in 2003. They're all female, strikingly prolific, mature early and reproduce asexually.
Be that as it may, I've never had a bichir and they may have an issue digesting crawdads; I wouldn't know.
Be that as it may, I've never had a bichir and they may have an issue digesting crawdads; I wouldn't know.
They're only prolific if you're taking the fry and raising them yourself, forcing them to make another batch. Otherwise you run into the issue of either waiting a few months for adequately sized feeders in the time you could've gone out and caught gambusia/some other wild feeder yourself multiple times, or the parents eating the fry in order to start over before the fry get to a size where you can feed off. Even then, when you let the parents rear fry you're only really left with a week's worth of feedings at most. A batch of 400 will probably realistically leave you with around 50. I'm aware they're meant to be occasional treats, but you also have to take into account the survivability of convict fry, as I have seen multiple accounts of people trying to feed off convicts to things only to have them grow up in the tank and start harassing the thing that was supposed to eat them. Convicts are not exactly the best feeders for ambush predators that aren't used to eating them. When using them as occasional treats you also run the risk of them growing out of the size range in which they're able to be eaten before you feed them off.
Wild strains of livebearers won't eat their fry and will get to a feeding size faster than convicts. However, even domestic strains will be prolific and "profitable" if you cover the tank in enough plants. No need for breeder boxes. I'm not saying breed something like xiphophorus montezumae as feeders, just like wild sailfin mollies or helleri swords. They'll be dropping 50-100 fry once or twice a month that'll get up to a good size in the next few weeks. They'll move around enough to be enriching,
So to answer the original question, yes, mollies will probably be the best option.
I would just put very large mollies in the display tank and let them colonize. If you throw some plants in there will be enough space for some fry to make it and some to get hit by the bichir. The Senegalese that I have kept seem to leave bigger fish alone. I second the issue on convicts. I think it won't be long and you will have a bunch of convicts you don't want.
This isn't my photo. I think it is from MFK, but I have seen plenty of mollies that size before.
This isn't my photo. I think it is from MFK, but I have seen plenty of mollies that size before.
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I tried to do the same thing I did it with Guppies it was pretty easy but then I found black worms they're way easier.
When you buy a pound offline or less throw them in a 10 20 gallon tank with 2 inches of water and some gravel and an AirStone you feed them some fish flakes once in a while and I would go in there with a butter knife and mix them up when they get chopped in half that's how they multiply they are by far the easiest thing I've ever grown in my life you literally just put them in a tank you don't even have to mix them up they multiply it by themselves they break apart by crawling through the Rock.
